Uhoh, Tom, the Android hater is starting a Galaxy Nexus thread, run!

I did want to see who here is getting one or has one already, because I am interested in the impressions others have of it. After reading and watching The Verge review, it does really seem like Google has made a big leap forward with this phone. Joshua Topolsky is someone I trust to be in line with my kind of thinking regarding tech gadgets.

I'm now curious to see one in person, mostly for the screen. The Pentile displays on my Samsung Captivate and Focus annoyed me quite a bit. It looks like the Nexus has a much improved version.

I know the Google ecosystem is mostly not for me, but I like seeing it improve anyhow. Competition in the market is a good thing. I've also been critical in the past here when other companies copy ideas. And to clarify a bit on that, I don't personally mind the copying too much as a way to spread innovations around, as long as it's done the right way. Blindly copying someone else, without understanding why leads to a bad copy. Multitiouch performance, and other iPhone like features on my Captivate was so frustrating because it tried to blindly copy Apple without getting it right. The people doing the copying didn't understand the importance of why the iPhone worked the way it did and performed the way it did, so it felt like a shoddy knockoff.

Looking at the pure Google experience on 4.0, Google seems to be copying some aspects from other ecosystems with the understanding of why those other systems worked the way they do. The Multitasking interface sudo clone from the WebOS side is fantastic. The touch response finally looks to be to the level I've grown accustom to since mid 2007.

Based on his comments in the Q&A, and parts of the review, it still seems iOS and potentially Windows Phone 7 have the edge on ease of use from a consumer point of view, but 4.0 does close the gap greatly. Now hopefully the 3rd party Android program makers, and the OEMs also follow suit and raise their own quality bars to the level Google appears to be aiming for.

I'll also be interested in seeing 4.0 on a tablet to see if it also gains similar improvements. Honeycomb fits into my "shoddy knockoff" category, and I've had direct experience with every 3.x revision on multiple devices.

Oh, it's a bit disappointing to see Verizon end up with the only US version of the Nexus. Hopefully that won't last long, as I'd be very tempted to take one on a proper month long trial of the Google vision for smartphones. The Captivate and general Android experience was horrible for me when I tried in 2010, it's impressive to see the amount of iteration and improvement in just 1.5 years time.

I never got the impression that you were a hater, just that it didn't work for you. Which I can understand. iPhone doesn't work for me because there's not enough fiddlability with it, but it's almost certainly more efficient at what it does.

Good commercial too. People actually using the phone for the features it has. Bonus points for part of it being filmed in Austin.

I'm definitely interested but I'm on T-Mobile.

Well, I think everyone here knows I'm on board to get it the moment it's released here in the US. I'm very jealous of the UK empeggers right now, who can just go out and buy one as of yesterday.

I've been very displeased with Samsung and Verizon in their handling of the release of this phone. I had assumed the lack of an announcement regarding the release date was a marketing thing, and they were putting a campaign together, but it sounds like the phone just got a somewhat surprise release in the UK. The November 17th UK release date was rumored for a long time, but never confirmed. Then it just seemed to show up in the stores.

The initial rumors were for the 10th here in the US, but clearly that didn't happen. Now it's very unclear, and some rumors put it for black Friday, which I would HATE. I despise the idea of going anywhere on the day after Thanksgiving, especially to any retail store.

My assumption now is that Verizon is also trying to figure out how to handle the steady stream of Android phones. If they'd released the RAZR and the Galaxy Nexus on the same day, all their shoppers would have asked why the phone with the older version of Android was better, and they'd have a tough time answering. I think now they're just trying to put as much time as they can (just a couple weeks) between the two handsets.

Tom, unfortunately I just don't think there's much you can do to crossover between the platforms. If you're very ingrained in the world of Apple, I don't think an Android phone is going to work well for you. If you're totally into Google, I think the same is true. If you use one or the other lightly, I think you're fine. My wife loves GMail and her iPhone equally, for example, but she doesn't have a Mac and she doesn't use Google Music, so she's just the right fit for crossing over between the two companies.

As for stuff that's lifted from other companies, yes, there are some elements from other platforms in ICS. Just like iOS5 lifted several Android features But yes, they improved on them. For example, iOS improved on the Android notification shade, and I think Google is trying to come back by matching or improving on those improvements.

Google is definitely afraid of Siri, though. They're going to have to top Apple on that feature, and I'm not sure they have a plan for it. In that feature war, Apple had extremely basic voice control, then Android had FAR better voice control, and now Apple has blown them away.


As for my expectations of the phone:

- I'm somewhat hesitant about the display, but I've been rocking a pentile display on the Nexus One and I don't have a problem with it. The display on the Galaxy Nexus will be far better in contrast and resolution, so I don't think I'm going to have much of a problem.

- I can't wait for the speed. My phone is a cow right now, and loading an image in the gallery takes like 30 seconds. I'm getting a lot of crashing apps too.

- I can't wait for more storage space. It's ridiculous how little room for apps they put into the Nexus One. That was poor planning on Google's part.

- I suspect I'll like the form factor of the phone, but the plastic feel and lightness of it will probably bother me. I'll probably get over it, though.


The biggest problem I'm going to have to get over with ICS is the lack of consistent placement of the menu and search buttons. this concerns me greatly. As for the menu button, I happen to be a big fan of it. I use it all the time, and I think it's a great way to tuck away additional options that you don't want cluttering up the screen. This is a fundamental UI choice that is very polarizing, I could offer many arguments for it, and those who don't like it could offer many against it, but I like it and I think Android users are used to it. The problem I have is that they didn't get rid of it, they made it something that will be shifting position based on the app. I don't like how it works on Honeycomb and I don't think I'll like it on ICS either. The annoying part to me is that I think the menu button is FAR more useful and important than a button that does nothing more than switch between apps. I do use this button on Honeycomb, but not nearly as often as I use the menu button in the apps that have it.

The other big concern I have is losing the search button. Not so much because I use it to search within apps, which I do, but because I use it ALL THE TIME to do voice search. In Android, if you hold down the search button for a couple seconds, it brings up the voice input mode. Nine times out of ten, I then say "note to self: ______" My phone then automatically sends an email to my inbox so I have a reminder to do something. They've removed this button entirely, and now search only exists on the home screen as one long bar. I do not like this, as one of the first things I did on my previous Android phones was to remove the search bar from the home screens to make more room for icons.


Anyway, obviously I'm looking forward to this phone. Now I just need a release date!

Given that the UK Galaxy nexus is the first pentaband GSM phone, which will work on every single GSM carrier in the world, apparently, there's no reason that it can't be offered on other carriers in the US. They just have to wise up and carry it.

Apparently AT&T had a post up on Google+ asking followers if they should carry the phone. It appears this was taken down, but it was caught by a couple blogs, I think.

A couple random thoughts:

- I'm planning to upgrade my 1.5 year old Droid X to a Galaxy Nexus, and thus renew a 2 year commitment to Verizon. The release date seems to be a moving target. droid-life.com seems to be covering the rumors reasonably well. The latest two rumored dates seem to be Nov. 21 and Dec. 8. We'll see.

- I've been saying for a while now that the only way to have a good Android experience is to have one that hasn't been dorked up by third party. Also, if there's some kind of serious problem, then it will impact enough Google employees that they will file bugs and/or just go fix it themselves.

- Plus, you're modestly less likely to have carrier-installed spyware like Carrier IQ. (It's entirely unclear whether other phones have the same issue or not. The company claims to support more than just Android.)

- The level of spit and polish looks impressive to me, but then I'm more of a power user than a "keep it clean and simple" guy.

- If you prefer AT&T, you should be able to import the international version at full price. It also works on AT&T's HSPA+ network. I don't know about whether it will additionally work with T-Mobile's equivalent network.

My ignorance about cell phones is beyond description, so please bear with me.

Does this mean that the Galaxy Nexus is made by Samsung to Google's specifications, and runs purely Google OS with no "features" and crapware added by anybody else?

If so, that seems like a good thing.

tanstaafl.

The prior two Nexus phones had this property. Zero crapware, plus no boot-locking, so you could rebuild the whole phone from source code, if you wanted, and install it without being required to "jailbreak" your phone.

For the current Galaxy Nexus, this appears to be the case, at least for the GSM version they're selling everywhere except the U.S. It's less clear what's up with the U.S. CDMA version. There's some screenshot evidence to say that it comes with a handful of Verizon apps, but it's presumably still a proper dev phone, so it should be relatively painless to return to pristine form, if you really want.

Also, for the record, the two previous Nexus phones weren't exactly made "to Google's specifications." My understanding is that they were more the case that they had these in the works and Google came along and said "gee, let's make that be the next Google phone." The current Galaxy Nexus appears to have been more of a direct collaboration between Google and Samsung, at least based on a handful of sketchy stories I've read. This is almost certainly a good thing.

What about Iris then? (no personal experience with it though...)

I've not tried it, but I've heard of it. From what I can tell it's not nearly the same thing, and doesn't really do the personal assistant stuff that Siri does or with the same level of natural language. I'll give it a shot sometime and see how well it works, though!

The Nexus One did have some crapware. Most notable is Amazon MP3, which had the wonderful property of starting itself constantly. There were other preinstalled apps, too: Twitter, Google Goggles, maybe more.

While I agree with you on the Amazon MP3 store (I hated how that behaved - I'm glad I rooted) and Twitter, if you include Google Goggles, what Google products do you draw the line at when calling them included crapware?

It looks like the rumors are centering on December 8th now, though given how horrible Verizon has been in this whole process, I wouldn't be surprised if THAT date was missed too. I can't stand how they're treating this release...

If you can't uninstall it and it's not a basic part of the OS, it's crapware.

I guess I wouldn't include first-party apps, at least not in the discussion we're having. By your definition I could also include the built-in Android Email app. The app isn't essential to using the phone (I haven't used it in three years of owning an Android phone), and I can't uninstall it. The same goes for the Places app.

I guess for me there's a psychological difference between Google's included apps and a third-party's, and it's the same reason I prefer the plain Android experience, because I figure Google knows what's going into that. When a manufacturer adds their skins, it's out of Google's hands and they don't have control over what that company does.

Of course Google's apps can still suck and third party manufacturers could do a good job (though the latter seems to be pretty impossible). But I have more confidence when I start with Google's vision and add what I want on top of that.

*edit*
BTW, I was saying Android's Email app wasn't "crapware," but I do believe it's "crap"

So, what is a basic part of the OS? An email client? A contacts manager? A web browser?

None of those, IMO. To be clear, I think it's perfectly reasonable to include those with the OS, but the fact that I can't uninstall them is … annoying. I mean, if I decided that the only browser I wanted to use is Dolphin, why am I required to still have "Browser" hanging around? (To be honest, this isn't a great example, as most of what "Browser" is is part of the native rendering engine.)

IMO, the only things that should be considered basic parts of the OS are things that are required for other programs to be able to function and for the user to be able to access them.

Agreed - part of the reason I finally decided to root mine was to get rid of 'uninstallable' things like T-mobile's top 5 apps app, which seems to want to update all the time, and assorted other crap.

I wouldn't mind them bundling a wide range of stuff, as long as they let you uninstall.

Bummer.



I can understand why people would want a unified partition with all the storage available in it, but releasing the phone before there's a solution for non-Microsoft platforms is kind of weak. Not that I'm in the Galaxy Nexus sweepstakes anyway, given I'm just a few months into my Nexus S contract, but, still.

I was actually chatting with a colleague several months ago about how hard it would be to hack up a block-level FAT32 interface *above* a traditional file system to solve exactly this problem. The conclusion of that conversation was that, yeah you could do it, but it would be exceptionally ugly.

At least according to Wikipedia, there are plenty of third-party implementations of MTP for Linux and Mac. The catch is that they're not just magically built in.

In the several years that I've had an Android device, I have used USB Mass Storage exactly once. I have used other methods to transfer files, from "cloud" syncs to Android Bluetooth and SMB clients to Android FTP servers.

This occasionally gets suggested as a way of talking to Empegs (or other MP3 players), whereupon what usually happens is that Mark Lord opines that it wouldn't be all that hard, and I opine that in fact it jolly well would. One major difficulty is that there's no guarantee that you get the cluster writes in any particular order: if you get all the data clusters first, you have no idea what file is being written (or rewritten) until you get the writes that update the parent directory's clusters and the FAT.

Peter

I was upset about it when I first heard, since I hate transfer modes like MTP and Samsung Kies (which is awful), but then I thought about it a while and decided that, like Bitt, I haven't hooked my phone up to my computer in an extremely long time.

Music can be loaded with Google Music over the web, or you can download apps like Double Twist or Winamp to sync over WiFi. Getting photos onto your phone has never been a problem if you've used Picasa (now Google Photos), as it automatically showed your web albums. Now Google+ gets the photos off automatically as well.

The last thing to sideload is video, and I've never needed to do that.

Yes, there are other instances when I've hooked my phone up, but those were geeky things like wanting to sideload an APK or rooting or installing an alternative ROM (and APKs can just be downloaded over email).

I still don't think it's tricky at all. Just write the clusters to disk, and wait for a FAT update that references them. There's a chance that one might then have to go back and split up previously written data if the FAT indicates multiple files, but that's about it. Not hard to keep track, though.

There are theoretical worst cases where performance would be miserable, but I suspect real-life to be more straightforward. Most uses of FAT involve writing a single file at a time.

Shouldn't be more than a few weeks of effort for somebody on a Google Summer of Code project.

Cheers.

I think you're conflating two things here. I imagine what you hate is using proprietary software to upload arbitrary files when you feel like you ought to be able to use your OS's built-in file copy mechanism.

However, there is no reason that these file transfer protocols cannot appear to the user as a standard filesystem. There's little similarity between FAT, NTFS, ISO-9660, UDF, SMB, etc., yet they all appear to the user to be more-or-less the same. And all modern OSes are extensible to add more file system types, and there's no reason that MTP cannot be implemented as one. In fact, there is a filesystem metadriver called FUSE that works under Linux and MacOSX (amongst some other Unix-like OSes) and there are MTP implementations for it.

I have no idea what the MTP experience on Windows is, but I kind of suspect that it's worse than what it will be under MacOS and Linux, because it's less likely that anyone will bother writing an IFS driver for Windows if it's built in, even if it is only as a separate interface.

If you gave me a choice between spending three weeks to implement a MTP/FUSE driver versus three weeks to implement a FAT32-over-a-filesystem layer, I'm pretty sure I'd go for MTP/FUSE, and the result would be stable and debugged sooner.

I don't think that's what I don't like about it. The file transfer experience is just different. It bypasses both the normal Windows file transfer application AND the one I've installed to replace it, Teracopy. The result is a very different experience from normal that just doesn't feel like mass storage.

I want it to act like I've stuck a thumb drive into my computer.

*edit*
But, like I said, I don't really care about this on my phone. I never plug my phone it. My tablet, on the other hand, I plug in to load video.

TeraCopy is still using the OS's built-in file copy mechanism; that's not exclusive to Explorer. It's also used by copy.com, etc. My point is that there is no reason that MTP can't function, to the end-user, exactly like any other filesystem.

Just got mine. I'm on the T-Mobile $30 100 minutes/unlimited text/5GB "4G" data plan.

I can answer questions if anyone has something specific they want to know. Just keep in mind it literally showed up 10 minutes ago.

Screenshot attached of T-Mobile "4G" in Stony Point, NY. I'm inside a brick and steel building.

I had this SIM in a HTC HD7 previously. It couldn't manage more than 2mbps in the same spot.

Awesome. Where'd you get it?

I pre-ordered it from Negri. I bought my grey-market Canadian Nexus S from them as well. I paid $765 + shipping from Las Vegas. They included the Android figurine and US Samsung-branded charger. The phone came sealed with UK charger.

Sweet! Are your first impressions favorable? Clearly they are as far as cellular data speed is concerned...

I've read a few rumors today that Verizon preorders might start tomorrow. I'm really sick of Verizon's lack of communication about this phone.

The screen is stunning. Before this, I was using a Galaxy S II as my daily driver. That screen was really great, but this one blows it away. It's like seeing the iPhone 4 for the first time again. The screen is just huge, smooth, and bright. Photos look fantastic on it.

I liked the old Android gallery app a lot. I was concerned about the change there, but the new one is more responsive and looks a lot better.

The stock apps (gmail, maps, etc.) are all Ice Cream Sandwich-ized. They look very spiffy.

The stock calendar app is still inferior to the iPhone by a large degree. I have a license for Business Calendar which works fine on ICS.

I used the browser only minimally so far, but pinch to zoom is a lot smoother. The higher resolution of the Galaxy Nexus is also a clear advantage here.

I'm still at work, so I can't play with the phone all day. I will run it through its paces later. I will note that ICS is a lot more polished than Gingerbread. I think it would be hard for anyone to buy a Droid Rarz with 2.3 on it when a Galaxy Nexus with ICS is on the same display. Perhaps this is why Verizon is dragging their feet?

Part of me says "hey, I can wait two weeks" and the other part of me says if I can wait a few more months, I can break my contract with Verizon and switch to T-Mobile. I'll probably stick with Verizon, since their 4G network really is a great thing.

Sigh.

Verizon LTE is nothing to sneeze at. I'm envious of it and I'm slightly concerned with breaking my AT&T contract now that LTE is rolling out, but they've been getting $101 per month from me for way too long. The T-Mobile $30 "Walmart" plan is tailor-made for me. I rarely use more than 100 minutes of cellular voice per month. Even if I were to go over by 200 minutes, the cost is still half of my AT&T contract plan. As far as I can tell, T-Mobile's HSPA+ is faster than AT&T's.

I've had every iPhone with the exception of the 4S. Apple's first mistake was their policy of not unlocking US phones which forced me to pick up an unlocked G1 for an extended trip to Germany. This gave me a taste of android with its relative freedom of wifi tethering, non-market apps, and deep Google services integration. I've been fiddling with Android and Windows Phone 7 for the past year or so after selling my iPhone 4 on eBay for a tidy profit. Apple's second mistake was not releasing an iPhone 5, which was what I was anticipating coming back to.

So, this is how I find myself with a Galaxy Nexus. Its pentaband radio is a substantial feature for the short while I'm keeping AT&T and T-Mobile service active. I can evaluate T-Mobile, and if it doesn't work out, the AT&T SIM will work just fine.

Anyway, the Galaxy Nexus is a tremendous phone. Ice Cream Sandwich and the gorgeous screen are what make it. ICS is clearly Google's smoothest, most polished mobile OS yet. It's barely recognizable as a descendant of Cupcake. I couldn't really say the same for Gingerbread.

Saying ICS is an iOS killer is pointless since some people think the earliest versions of Android already accomplished that. But, it's clear that Google is paying attention to what makes iOS so appealing. ICS is fantastic. Any die-hard iOS fan would have to admit it. It's too bad Sense and TouchWiz will probably ruin it for the majority of devices.

Wow, I'm happy to hear your reports, Rob. Everything I'm hearing is saying the phone is pretty spectacular.

Well, I'd be interested in hearing what you think of the camera, which is the biggest critical hit it's been taking in all the reviews out there.

Agreed, LTE is quite nice, and one reason I'll be slightly envious of the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon. Though for now, I'm fine with waiting a little bit for battery life concerns of LTE chipsets to be addressed. AT&T 3G speeds are usually pretty good in areas where their network isn't swamped. If I were a Verizon or Sprint 3G customer, I'd be eagerly looking to get to a proper 4G device.


This is the one plan I had really wanted to jump to with the unlocked 4S, but with no pentaband radio, I'd be stuck on edge. For now, I am sticking with my base AT&T plan, which works out to $50ish a month between my family plan and discount. If the next iPhone goes LTE, I'll reevaluate then.


I do like how AT&T likes to point the finger at Apple, and Apple points the finger back to AT&T regarding unlocking. I have to wonder if this was some weird concession during the exclusivity period. Really stupid policy in any case, whoever is ultimately behind it.


Not to derail the thread too much, but what about a so called iPhone 5 had you interested above the 4S? As far as I can tell, the iPhone 5 rumors started with a baseless "I heard from a friend" and were amplified into near "fact" by the internet echo chamber, with no real basis in reality. I pay very little attention to Apple rumors these days, since most seem to be link bait to ensure ad views on an otherwise slow news day.


I am glad to see the improvements, as Android really didn't interest me much when I tried it out with the Captivate. ICS does interest me more, but I don't see myself switching over it. The Google ecosystem simply doesn't interest me, especially after my Google account pretty much imploded earlier this year with the release of Google Plus. With no one to contact for assistance, and no way to easily fix the issue, I nuked it and moved on. I've had MobileMe quirks, but I've also had support to contact, and never faced a situation (yet) that required a restart from scratch.

Hopefully with Google's more focused approach in general, they will continue to improve across the board. Their products up till now outside the core search have all very much felt like engineers gone wild, with no design sense to them. I do find it interesting that ICS is basically 3.0 for the phone side. Makes me wonder if Google is going to turn out similar to Microsoft, where it took until the 3rd major revision of a product for it to start turning into something really interesting.

I probably could have been swayed by a larger screen, better camera, and more RAM.

My first phone with a screen larger than the iPhone was a Dell Venue. It was a really eye-opening experience. Since that point, iPhones look too small to me.

RAM is important for multiple Safari tabs/windows. It drove me crazy on the iPad 1 and it's better on the iPad 2, but is still an annoyance.

I guess we got a better camera, but the Galaxy S II camera was pretty fantastic in my opinion. The iPhone 4S camera seems to be lacking the special sauce that made the iPhone 4 camera stand out in its time.

A big downside to the iPhone is having to jailbreak to make it do what I want. I don't mind doing it if the exploits come out quick enough, but it's still annoying and easier just to pick up an unlocked Android phone.

I will post some Galaxy Nexus camera samples tomorrow. I'm one of those jerks that takes photos of food at restaurants. The Galaxy Nexus does a good job of taking photos in low light. However, the jpegs are about 1.3MB which seems small for 5MP photos. I think the (un-selectable) compression might be too high for my liking. I'll have to scrutinize the pics later. On the up-side you can snap pics at an astonishing rate. If iPhone and Galaxy Nexus both claim zero shutter lag, Google's definition of "zero" feels quicker.

The Galaxy Nexus camera is inferior to the Galaxy S II. It could be due to the JPEG compression, but it doesn't really matter since I can't change that.

Attached to this post is a sample from the Galaxy S II (which I don't own anymore). The text on the DIMMs is crisp even through the packaging.

I will add Galaxy Nexus samples to the next post.

It's a gloomy day here, so outdoor shots might have to wait a while. I have some pics taken at my desk this morning and taken in a restaurant last night.

My overall impression of the camera is that it's mediocre. The Galaxy S II's camera was surprisingly good. The Nexus is just blah. It's not terrible, but it's definitely a downgrade. I will survive since I don't rely on my telephone to be my primary shooter. It will do just fine for quick pics.

All this talk of gingerbread and ice cream, and now pictures of sushi - you're making me hungry!

This made me actually LOL.

If you decide you don't like it, I'd be happy to dispose of it for you.

Did you happen to get a docking station for it? That's the one thing that makes me curious. I really like just being able to plop my N1 in its stand and not have to worry about lining up a connector. I got the impression that the Galaxy Nexus would be this way, too.

I'm extremely curious about this as well. I also have a Nexus One dock, and I love it. It always surprises me how unpopular phone docks have been in general.

It looks like the Galaxy Nexus has contacts similar to the N1, but on the side. I don't mind docking it in a different orientation, I just want to doc it the same way I do with my N1.

I was surprised when the Galaxy Nexus debuted in the UK and yet had no accessories released alongside it. The thing that worries me about the accessories is that there are two physical sizes of the Galaxy Nexus, with the LTE version being slightly thicker, so most accessories will have to be made in two sizes...

Yeah, I'm also confused by the relative lack of popularity of phone docks. Samsung offers a Nexus S dock for the home, but in the car, all they offer is a GPS mount that you have to plug in a separate charger for (there are a couple of aftermarket products, but no really good ones that I've seen.)

This might be a case of that dreaded Android "f-word" problem rearing its head again -- because there are so many different phones with different form factors, nobody bothers making docks when they won't sell enough of them before people move on to a new phone with a slightly different positioning of the microUSB port or whatever. (Even the Nexus series all have different shapes, sizes, etc.) I was hoping that the L-shaped Nexus S dock might make it possible for future Nexus phones (at least ones from Samsung) to re-use the same dock, but that appears to not be the case from eyeballing the Galxy Nexus hardware.

I'm even more shocked that nobody's really copied or licensed the Touchstone idea from HP. What I wouldn't give for an induction-charging magnetic dock for my Nexus S...

I plan to get a home dock like in this photo which appears to make use of the side contacts. Expansys is offering another type that I could live with, but it's not exactly what you and I are looking for. It's also terribly expensive. I'm sure dealextreme and ebay will be flooded with cheap docks soon.

That reminds me... If anyone has an HTC Liberty/Aria, I have a stand-up dock for it. If you want it, send me a PM. I'll cover the postage as long as it's no more than a couple bucks.

Cool, thanks.

Tony, while I definitely agree that the number of handset form factors is a big contributor to the lack of docks, I don't think that's the only reason. I just don't think docks are very popular, though I don't know why.

Even for the iPhone, there's a universal dock, but it's certainly not pushed very hard and it's always an afterthought. I'd be willing to bet the iHome dock is even more popular, which bothers me because all I want is a simple no-frills dock.

One possible reason for the lack of popularity might be due to smartphone cases. They all change the shape of the phone in question in different ways, so they would all have to ship with their own dock adapters (in the case of the iPhone). With my wife's 3GS, the case she liked happened to come with its own dock adapter, and that was great. However, just try to look for any iPhone 4S cases that come with an adapter for the universal dock. I couldn't find any, and I think it's because, as "universal" as the dock may be, they didn't anticipate that the iPhone 4 with a case would be wider than their previous phones (at least it looks that way to me, is that right?), so it wouldn't fit! Eventually I just took the adapter out and she plugs her phone in without it. It works but it's certainly not as attractive (and Steve wouldn't like it).


That really is the solution, isn't it? I'd LOVE to have inductive charging, even if it made the phone a little thicker. The next best thing, though, is the method the Nexus One and the Galaxy Nexus are employing. It's very nearly like inductive charging, because when I put my N1 in the dock, it's not like I'm plugging it in or making sure it's clicking into any kind of microUSB connector. I'm simply setting the phone down, and that makes a surprisingly large difference in the long run.

I think you'll be satisfied with how the Galaxy Nexus charges. It won't be your inductive charging, but it should be pretty close...

Speaking of inductive charging, I think the killer app for that would be for the batteries themselves to have inductive charging coils in them. I don't know how much electronics is required to support that — if it's a lot, that may make this unfeasible — but having it built directly into the power system instead of it being a feature of the phone would be awesome. That said, if a single standard becomes popular, that would work just as well. It would just be neat if it were an addon that could be swapped in with a new battery. (Well, ignoring the waste that might incur.)

An unpleasant surprise has surfaced with the Galaxy Nexus. It appears the bluetooth stack doesn't support AVRCP 1.3. In my post-empeg life, I've been relying on a JVC KW-NT50HDT for automotive entertainment. One of the features is A2DP audio, but the nice double-DIN display can also show track data in addition to simple control of tracks.

With the Galaxy Nexus, I just get audio control (play, pause, skip, etc.) without the track data. Lame-o.

This is what the JVC looked like with Windows Phone 7 (mango):


This is the Galaxy S II running CM7 nightlies based on Android 2.3.7:


I'd be interested to know if Cyanogenmod was actually responsible for the added AVRCP functionality or if it's something that hasn't been merged from Android 2.3.x into ICS yet. Seems very odd, but it's not enough for me to start putting custom ROMs on my lovely Nexus. As I understand it, iOS 5 introduced this ability to iDevices. Oh well.

Have you tried different music playing apps? Do they all have the same issue?

I can try other apps, but I'm only really interested in using the stock Google Music 4 app. This is what was working on the Galaxy S II.

Hmmm, I personally think the 4->4S camera improvement is bigger than the 3GS->4. The 4S camera is pretty amazing in my experience - low light performance is exceptional and the sharpness is great.

From an Arstechnica article "Can the iPhone 4S replace a "real" digital camera?"


They use some images from a How does the iPhone 4S camera stack-up against other cameras? article elsewhere which also includes comparison shots with a Canon S95 and a 5D MkII.

The 4S definitely has a great camera for a phone, but she really should have left out the specious comparisons to the larger dedicated cameras.

I was watching that video of the HDMI dock this morning. I'm a little sad that the contacts on the bottom of the N1 aren't on the bottom of the GN, but I'm fine if they're on the side. It makes it possible to do the HDMI through the micro USB port, I guess, so that's fine.

I'm hoping that the horizontal dock will bring up the clock app, like it does with the N1. It's one of the many things that helps make my phone my alarm clock. Oh well, if it doesn't I'm sure I can program Tasker to do it for me.

Anyway, I'm hope these accessories follow the GN soon after release. I need that dock

I'm still worried by the lack of communication from Verizon. We're four or five days from the next rumored date of Dec 8th, and another rumor today said Dec 9th. At this point I can't think of what the holdup could be. People know about this phone, even some non-techie people. The RAZR has had as much time at the top of the hill as any Android phone usually gets. The volume bug is worked out (and wasn't that big a deal to begin with). What the hell is big red doing?

HDMI through microusb? Is that possible? Seems like most of the things which appear to be HDMI over microUSB are MHL links (less wires) which means you need a converter - much like the iPhone's displayport over the dock connector.

I was wondering about that too. All I know is that the dock appears to only connect over micro USB. Perhaps there are additional contact on the bottom of the phone, but that still wouldn't seem to be enough to trasmit. I guess we'll see when the phone is released. I wasn't planning on getting the HDMI dock, but I might after all.

HDMI output on the phone is supported by using an MHL adapter, as seen in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENdJv_AI5vU

I've attached a panorama I made this weekend using the built-in capability. Not too bad.

So I assume the dock is also an MHL adapter. What is missing in the phone's micro USB connector - but it gets from these adapters - that gives it the capability to display video? Is it additional power?


Pretty nice. It looks a lot like the PA countryside I was driving threw this weekend. Also, it's nice to see that cats can appreciate scenic vistas too.

The Galaxy Nexus supports WiFi Direct. I've seen WiFi Direct to HDMI devices, so maybe that's how the HDMI dock connects to the phone for video? I think we'll have to wait to find out. It would be silly to dock the phone on its side for power, but then have to plug in a cable to the micro USB port for video.

The dock where you put the phone on its side is just a charging dock, like for a nightstand. The HDMI dock sits the phone upright and connects to the micro USB port. The HDMI dock has two ports on it, one for micro USB and one is a full (or mini) HDMI.

What I'm wondering, after seeing that dock and the adapter in the video you linked, is what these adapters are adding to the mix that isn't on the phone already. It looks like both the adapter and the dock essentially get two micro USB inputs, then output to HDMI. So I'm wondering if that second micro USB input is necessary at all...

It's probably only necessary for power. The idea being that playback of a two hour movie may tax the device enough that power becomes a concern if you also want to resume using it as a phone for the rest of the day. Especially since the phone is also powering the active converter chip in the dock/cable adaptor.

I'm only basing this off how the iDevices work with their adaptors for VGA/HDMI.

OK, I didn't look at The Verge videos. I was basing my info off of a screen shot for the "multimedia dock" which sits the phone sideways. In that context, I guess multimedia means "stand the phone up in landscape orientation to watch content on the device's screen" rather than "output to another display."

As far as the MHL adapters go, my undertanding is that the microUSB on the adapter is for charging. I believe it's a requirement, but I don't have any such adapter to test with.

Do any of you guys listen to the TechTalkUK podcast? Kev seems to not be very impressed http://www.techtalkuk.com/ (also mentioning because I was the guest on the podcast last week) :p

I'm running ICS on my Nexus S at the moment and I'm very happy with it. Even as an alpha build, it's very usable and fun.

(And "HI!" everyone! A buddy is having an issue with his RioCar so I figured I'd stop in and look around.)

There's more to "vanilla" Android than just the launcher. But I can understand the question about why it's so expensive. That said, I would personally pay more for the touch-contact dock over a fiddly connector any day.

Why were you the guest on his podcast?

OK, I've listened to the podcast and I'll address some of the host's points from my perspective living with the phone for a week or so.

He likes the Galaxy S II hardware better than the Galaxy Nexus
Generally speaking, I agree. I like the squared-off look of SGS2 better and I do like having the physical home button. I also prefer the SGS2 camera to the Galaxy Nexus. However, that's where it ends. I don't get the complaint about not being able to orient the phone right side up when pulling it out of your pocket. This has never been a problem for me. There is a hump at the bottom of the Nexus that helps with orientation in the dark. This issue has never crossed my mind.

The screen of the Galaxy Nexus is better than the SGS2 in my opinion. It's not a tough conclusion to come to. The Nexus is bright and extremely high-res. I will agree that the auto-brightness settings are too aggressive with power saving. But, if that's due to faulty programming, that can be easily fixed. If it's intentionally too dim, then I can just continue keeping the phone on "medium" brightness on the power widget. If find that medium works well in most indoor situations.

The host said he missed being able to bring up a settings button from the home screen. I guess he was hitting the menu key that doesn't exist anymore on the Nexus. Honestly, I know that's a feature of most phones/launchers, but I never use it. I usually have a settings icon on the first home screen. ICS puts a settings icon in the notification drawer anyway. Just pull it down and press that thing that looks like an audio mixer. I've actually put the settings icon on one of the secondary home screens because of this.



Ice Cream Sandwich is "confusing" for non-geeks
The host mentioned that he has bought six SGS2s. Has he ever tried to make a folder in TouchWiz? That is probably the most maddening UI design I've ever seen. On the other hand, ICS works exactly like iOS which, as much as Android fans might disagree, is the proper way.

Maybe he just sticks Launcher Pro on the SGS2 right away. OK, I don't disagree with that too much. I don't find TouchWiz as offensive as Sense, but anything closer to stock is a step in the right direction in my view. But, Samsung's mark is still left on the OS when just replacing the launcher. You still don't have the color-changing signal indicators that inform you when the connection is broken between you and the Google mothership. You still have those cartoonish icons in the settings app. And, perhaps worst of all, you have the Apple-patented snap effect when you over-scroll in lists. Needless to say, I put CM7 on my SGS2 as soon as a public release was available. That, combined with ADWLauncher EX, basically gave me a Nexus S with improved hardware.

As far as Android goes, I've had a G1, HTC Aria, LG Optimus, Dell Venue, Nexus S, Galaxy S II, and now the Galaxy Nexus. In my opinion, the only way to go is Nexus. I don't want to dick around with custom ROMs anymore to get rid of the manufacturer and carrier customizations. I want to have the same device the Google developers hack on. I want the pure Android experience. Those are the main advantages of the Galaxy Nexus to me. That trumps physical home keys and better cameras. I don't doubt that the Galaxy S 3 will be a scorcher in comparison to the Galaxy Nexus. But, ICS was built with the Nexus hardware in mind. I'll be just fine until the next Nexus comes around.

Widgets and the App drawer
Not being able to add widgets to the home screen by holding down a blank area of the wallpaper is a strange omission. It could obviously be there as it has in the past, but the app drawer holds widgets now. It's not a big deal to change your behavior, and an Android newcomer might not even be aware they can add widgets by doing it the old way. Now that they're in the app drawer, widgets are more visible. Being that widgets are a big advantage of Android, this was a good move. Having a preview of what the widget actually looks like before you place it is also a plus of this new design.

The host made a comment about scrolling through the pages of apps in the app drawer to get to the widgets. Then, you scroll through 7 pages of widgets and decide you want to see your apps again and then having to scroll back 7 or 8 pages. Does he not realize you can tap the Apps or Widgets tab to jump straight to those things inside the app drawer?



If you didn't notice that, I don't think you gave ICS much of a chance.

App incompatibility with Ice Cream Sandwich
I haven't run into much of this. The only things that didn't work for me initially were Wolfram Alpha and Tumblr. In the week I've spent with the phone, both apps have been updated.

Early US users wanting to like Galaxy Nexus because they paid full-price
I think there is some truth to that, but I can only speak from my experience. After using ICS, there is no going back to Gingerbread. Like it or not, Galaxy Nexus is the only official way to get ICS at this time. In my view, ICS makes up for the (few) shortcomings of the Galaxy Nexus hardware.

I make full use of Google Voice. I couldn't even tell you what the prefix of my T-Mobile phone number is. I have never given it out, I will never give it out. While this makes almost no difference to the European market, the pentaband radio in the Galaxy Nexus is probably the most important feature of the phone to me. I can finally be carrier-independent without switching hardware when I switch service. AT&T, T-Mobile US, h2o, Simple Mobile, etc all work equally well in this phone.

The Galaxy Nexus is the best all-around phone I've handled to date. I think the iPhone 4S is great, I think the SGS2 is great. For my use and taste, the Galaxy Nexus just blows those two away. The only disappointment so far is the camera being a downgrade from the SGS2. But, most Nexus buyers probably won't be faced with that reality having never owned a SGS2 (in the US, anyway). That's just down to the 2-year upgrade cycle most Americans live by. If you blew your upgrade on a SGS2, you're not likely to be presented with the opportunity to buy a (cheap) Galaxy Nexus. But, the Nexus camera is probably better than what upgraders are coming from, so it will be good enough.

All that said, I respect the host's preference for the SGS2. It's a fantastic phone and likely a better bargain at this point in time. The nice thing about all the Android fragmentation is that you have a bunch of choices that suit your tastes while keeping your investment in a single app ecosystem. I know there are people that love Sense or TouchWiz. It's their right just like it's my right to want the vanilla experience. Right now, Galaxy Nexus is the best tool for the job. I'm very pleased with it and can recommend it over the SGS2 to anyone on the fence.

Rob, have you looked into Republic Wireless? They have a hacked LG Optimus Android phone that does all your voice calling over your WiFi, using the cellular network as a backup. $200 for the phone, $20/month flat fee thereafter. That's not unreasonable.

I've looked into it and I think it's a great concept. It's just not for me. The biggest issue is the Optimus is a huge step backwards. The fallback cell network is Sprint which sucks in my office and isn't GSM.

I basically do the same thing now, but it's a little more hands-on. The T-Mobile plan I'm on has only 100 voice minutes. Since all my calls are routed through Google Voice anyway, I simply set GrooVe IP to connect when I'm on wifi. This way, incoming calls are automatically routed over wifi. Then I just have to use the GrooVe IP dialer to initiate a call. It's a good way to conserve cellular minutes, but hardly necessary in my case. I have 9 days left in this billing cycle and have only used 80 voice minutes so far.

There's nothing *missing*, it's just not HDMI. HDMI is lots of LVDS pairs, and there's simply not the room to put them on the connector.

Hence, the video doesn't come out of the phone as HDMI - the phone doesn't actually have HDMI at all. Instead, it has MHL, which is likely very similar to displayport (high speed with embedded clock) - this needs less wires and so fits on the connector.

There's then a chip in the dock which receives MHL and turns it into HDMI, exactly as there is on iPads/iPhones (there it's displayport to HDMI). This is why the docks/converter cables aren't dirt cheap - they actually have a significant bit of silicon in them.

Ugh. Verizon blocks Google Wallet on Galaxy Nexus smartphone

Yeah, I love that their response has been to the tune of "You think we're blocking it? We're not blocking it! We're just not allowing it to be included with the phone! We have...security concerns...yeah, that's the ticket! No, it's not at all because we've partnered with other companies on a competing 'standard.'"

That about sums it up, I think.

I'm not even a Verizon customer yet and I'm already unhappy with my switch from T-Mobile

If it's something that concerns you, especially on a premiere Android device, maybe the route Rob took is worth looking into yourself. Don't give Verizon business if you feel uncomfortable with them, and have no service needs to switch.

It is worth running the numbers these days on prepaid vs postpaid plans, and buying outright. My own experience doing this recently was very enlightening. I was much closer to being able to switch and save money then I thought I was. The only thing that really killed it for me was the lack of an AWS capable radio in the 4S.

I thought I saw the HSPA+ version is launching in Canada tomorrow or Friday for $650 Canadian. Prices on this phone should be coming down soon.

Did you notice there's no Google logo on the back of the Verizon Nexus? It's obvious who's running the show. Tethering is also a concern since we already know the Verizon Nexus comes preloaded with Verizon apps that can't be removed. LTE is tempting, but at what price?

PS- This post was made on an iPad tethered to my Galaxy Nexus because my cable is out. Thank you, generic unlocked cellphone.

Here's the problem: I actually want to be on Verizon's network! They have the best network in my area, and I need that given the amount of travelling around my area that I do. I can't, like most people, just say "what's the best network at work and at home?" because my work covers all of northern VA. Also, Verizon is the only network that works throughout the Metro subway system. Oh, and I can get LTE with their version of the GN, which is "more 4G" than the other guys' 4G.


How do you do prepaid on a phone of your choosing?

I can't afford $750 for a phone, and I really need a new phone so I can't really wait much longer. The actual hardware of my Nexus One appears to be failing, with bluetooth working half the time and a host of other annoyances. I need a reliable phone because it's my lifeline and the only phone all my business is conducted through.

It's no matter, though, because I really doubt it would make economic sense to go prepaid for me. Like I said, I run my business through my phone, and I don't have a landline. I spend a lot of time on the phone with clients, and I use a lot of data.

With T-Mobile, choose one of their prepaid plans, and for the phone, select T-Mobile Prepaid SIM Activation Kit, which is just a bare SIM card. This is pretty much what I did from day 1 with my N1.

The Verizon GN phone will (so far as we've been told) be a genuine dev phone, meaning it will be trivial to unlock and reinstall with whatever you want. Thus, if you want to remove the two (?) Verizon crapware apps and you want to add Google Wallet, you absolutely can.

What sucks is that this isn't the default for everybody.

Caveat: I have no problem with the "My Verizon" app to help you find out how many minutes you've burned, etc. The "backup" thing is pretty easy to ignore, at least on my Droid X.

Going Verizon on a contract may make more sense then for you. I simply suggested it's worth looking into other options. Just keep in mind you will be paying ~$750 for that phone in either case, just one way splits that cost over a 24 month contract.

Going "pay as you go" is about the only way here in the US to do what is common in other countries, and that is paying only for the service you receive. Contract plans here with the carriers seem to never be discounted when the phone subsidy is paid off. Instead, they just pocket the extra profit. So if you do keep going the contract route, it makes sense from a value perspective to always upgrade as soon as you are eligible to do so. Beyond my own geek tendencies to want new stuff, it's the other reason I have for jumping into the new iPhones when they come out.

There are a number of pay as you go plans out there that run on Verizon's network. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_virtual_network_operators would be a good starting place for your own research into what might work out price wise.


Bitt answered the T-Mobile side, and the same is true of AT&T. You simply walk into a store, and ask for a SIM card. Amusingly, T-Mobile even has a Micro SIM available for iPhone/iPad users, and the one store I went into had a tool to cut a normal mini sim down to the micro size.

For Sprint and Verizon, and their associated MVNOs, it's a matter of calling or going into a store, and giving them some CDMA unique ID number for them to allow on their network. It's not as flexible as the SIM route, but usually still possible to bring your own device.

The 4S is still a weird one though with it's CDMA piece. I got mixed answers when I talked to various providers on the ability to provision it.


4G at this point has lost all meaning with marketing abusing it. None of them are true 4G by ITU standards currently. What really matters is that practical speed and latency of the network. T-Mobile's (and to a lesser extent AT&T)'s HSPA+ network is in the same league as the Verizon LTE network. And both the LTE and HSPA+ networks usually have available bandwidth, unlike the heavily oversubscribed WiMax network Sprint and Clear operate as "4G".

Don't get me wrong, the Verizon LTE network is a good thing, and a proper move for them to make to remain viable into the future. The CDMA derived counterpart to LTE died, leaving them with little choice on how to move beyond their existing 3G CDMA network. (and showing this whole G confusion, Verizon and Sprint's 3G networks are somewhat similar to the pre 3G setups GSM providers use, hence the capped around 1-2 mbit speeds and lack of voice/data.)

My one word of caution would be that LTE chipsets are still noticeability more power hungry then the HSPA+ counterparts. Not sure what chipset the Galaxy Nexus will be using.

Google already blew it. There are at least 3 variants of the GSM Galaxy Nexus, only one of which receives updates straight from Google. You can read about some of it here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1376856

The gist is that only phones with "yakju" OS builds are updateable by Google. yakjusc and yakjuxw also exist in the market, but Samsung pushes the updates for these. Guess which variant got the OTA software update and which ones didn't. I would also bet that Verizon will be pushing updates to devices rather than Google.

FWIW, my phone got the OTA fix for 900Mhz 2G networks.


The definition of "reasonable service" is so subjective. I don't really need to tell anyone that, I don't think. Anything you go with will be a compromise and it's going to be very tough to pick something without hands-on experience. You also can't rely on your friends that might have contract service if you're looking at prepaid. AT&T contract plans have greater coverage than prepaid. The same goes for T-Mobile, but the difference is even more dramatic.

AT&T contract coverage:

AT&T prepaid coverage (don't break-down in Nebraska):


T-Mobile does allow prepaid customers to roam for voice and text. But data is a no-no.

T-Mobile contract voice (green) and data (pink):


T-Mobile prepaid voice/text (green) and data (pink):


From my experience (only a few weeks), those grey areas of the prepaid data map are where you can roam on voice/text, but not data. Those are some serious holes. But, I'm not so worried about it because of where I spend most of my time. You live in Texas. Depending on where you are in the state, T-Mobile could be a terrible choice.

Just for fun, we can take a look at Simple Mobile, one of T-Mobile's few MVNOs. Their coverage map mirrors the T-Mobile prepaid data map which basically means there is no roaming off the T-Mobile network for anything. Depending on your needs, however, their $40/month unlimited everything plan might be a dream come true.

"Google already blew it."

(I moved Rob's good coverage post here, mostly since it makes more sense attached to the existing Galaxy Nexus thread, vs being at the bottom of a WebOS thread. Doubt many people are shopping for unlocked Palm Pre's these days

Those maps, while great eye candy, hide a lot of holes.

While tmobile covers the area around me - my house is in a small hole, ~1/2mi,
of marginal signal.

That's quite disturbing. I certainly do not want to rely on Samsung OR Verizon to get me my updates. However, the one positive is that when Google pushes out an update for the version they're able to push to, usually XDA Developers gets a copy out to everyone else anyway. I've used that version to update my Nexus One in the past. I'd hope that we'd be able to use that on all the GN's, but who knows? And I guess there'd certainly be a difference between the LTE and GSM phones... Ugh...


I'd have kind of preferred a completely new thread. It's not like we have too many, and it sort of clutters this one up. We'll hopefully have more stuff to talk about with this phone this week.

According to the first few posts of that thread, he was unable to update his non-Google Galaxy Nexus with the Google Galaxy Nexus update.

I'm not following all that too closely, but I believe someone was able to put the standard Google build on their Samsungified Nexus. Whether it will receive updates OTA or not is probably still up in the air.

FYI, tomorrow (Thursday), this time for realz, is the date for the release of the U.S. CDMA version of the Galaxy Nexus. Finally.

Good luck to anyone out to snag one tomorrow. The phone is awesome and I would be interested to hear about battery life on LTE.

I'm super excited and I'll be in the door first thing tomorrow to pick one up!

That doesn't mean I'm not still pissed at Verizon. The Google alert I have set up notified me of a story today that quoted Verizon as saying something along the lines of "the Galaxy Nexus will be out this year" and "we will be sending out a press release in advance of the phone's release."

Well, fortunately they made it before the end of the year. I didn't see a press release, but the first Google alert I got about the official announcement was at 5:30pm today. Really? A soft announcement the night before the phone is released? Clearly Verizon doesn't care about this phone. Although, when I called my local store, they answered "Thanks for calling Verizon, home of the Galaxy Nexus."

This is one of those areas where I really have to agree with Steve Jobs. The cell phone carriers need to be in the business of selling bits and otherwise just get out of the damn way.

I have the Galaxy Nexus. I'm going to keep this short because I have a lot of playing to do

I can say, however, that this phone is phenomenal. The screen is gorgeous, and I think the hardware is great. No, it doesn't feel as well built as the iPhone, but I also don't think it feels as cheap/"plasticy" as the Galaxy S series of phones. I think it feels just right, with just the right amount of heft and solidity (if I can describe it that way).

Despite the extremely soft launch of the phone, there were 8 people at my local Verizon store waiting to get in, and I'd say that by the time I left the store an hour later (after I got the phone I geeked out with a couple other Galaxy Nexus owners), at least 20 people had gotten their phone and there were 20 more waiting. Considering it's also being sold at Best Buy, Radio Shack, and even Costco, I think we could see big sales numbers for the phone. Clearly not iPhone numbers, but big numbers still.

Okay, have to go now. This phone is nuts. I'm loving it already. Oh wait, here's a couple quick impressions:

Face unlock - gimmicky, but a gimmick that works surprisingly well when it does. I'm able to unlock faster than doing a pattern. However, I can't wear sunglasses most of the time and I have to be pretty straight-on. No matter, I can still use a pattern if it fails. It's clearly not a great security tool, because a photo of you can fool it, but it's something.

Camera - SUPER FAST! As some reviewers have said, it's actually a little TOO fast sometimes, and you end up with some blurry photos. I think that will take some adjusting but eventually I'll get it down.

Beam - as I said, I geeked out with another guy there who was just as excited and over the moon about the phone as I was. We tried the beam feature and it's pretty damn great. You simply hold the phones up to each other, tap your screen, and the other person has what you sent. We tried it with a map and then with apps, and both worked beautifully. It's really cool, and I can't wait for more NFC ICS phones to get out there.

That's all I can think about at the moment... gotta go play... for real this time... SUPER EXCITED!

I got mine this morning as well, and pretty much the same story as you. It's a great phone. I'll need to do a proper write-up later, but right now I'm facing a vexing problem. The phone won't charge!

It charged fine in my car, but when I plug it into my computer's USB port, it doesn't charge. The computer doesn't see it at all. Likewise, when I plug it into a USB wall wart charger, nothing. No charge. When I plug other micro USB gadgets into those ports, everything charges just fine.

EDIT: the solution turned out to be getting a different USB cable. Apparently, not all micro USB cables are created equal. Lovely.

Excellent commercial. Did you notice that the girl at :45 is eating... an ice cream sandwich? Cute!

tanstaafl.

In case anyone missed it in all the GN excitement, Engadget posted a video of TouchWiz running on ICS. After seeing this, I am even more happy to have the pure Google UI on my Galaxy Nexus. Also, all the common elements of ICS like the settings app look too big on the SGS2 compared to the high-res Galaxy Nexus screen.

OK: How is it as a phone? Good clarity on both ends? Does it hold calls?

I'm up for a renewal on vzw, and am sorely tempted. I've been on BBs for years, mostly happily, but am getting tired of waiting for them to update.

The battery addons for iphones still bug me. I want to be able to carry a spare battery or two when I get into areas with flaky signals and no charger.

thanks,

-jk

So far, so good, but it's early to speak meaningfully about sound quality. I can say that the ringer and vibration buzzer aren't particularly loud / noticeable.

Has anyone seen anything about the accessories for the GN? I can understand Verizon holding back the phone, but I don't really see why Samsung would be so delayed with the accessories, which they can sell themselves at a big markup/profit. If I could, I'd go out and buy a car dock, two desktop docks, and probably an HDMI dock.

So far, all I've seen is a desktop dock, but absolutely not the kind I want. It positions the GN horizontally, which is fine, but it charges by sliding the phone to the right into a micro USB plug. It looks awful, and I'm surprised it's made by Samsung! What the heck happened to the dock they showed when they announced the phone?

*edit*

Even worse is this product, which is merely a stand that charges a second battery. There is no port to charge the phone. Instead, you're expected to use the included two-prong micro USB charger to connect to the back of the stand (for the battery) and to the bottom of the phone on its side (at least, that's what the one they had at Verizon contained, it looks like the Amazon one leaves you to find your own charger for the phone).

This concerns me greatly, because it seems my earlier fears of not knowing how to deal with the different form factors of the phone might be valid. The two models of Galaxy Nexus might just be a mm different, but that's going to make it difficult for making accessories...

The Verizon Galaxy Nexus car dock apparently is coming to market without support for the side contacts. Docking in the car will be a two-step process. Slide phone into plastic dock, connect to microUSB cable for power.

Very strange if you ask me.

My Moto Droid X's car mount was a hybrid. It had a micro USB connector on the back, which the bracket then passed through to the phone, but you still had to plug the audio jack in directly to the phone. The Verizon Galaxy Nexus bracket is only marginally worse. I'd have one already, but I have a $100 BestBuy gift card burning a hole in my pocket, so I want to buy the car mount (and in-home HDMI adapting stand) with that gift card, but BestBuy has none of them in stock. They're not even on their web site.

Sigh.

The only thing that was really beneficial from the Moto solution was that the phone, when mounted in the bracket, automatically launched the "car dock" application, which turned the screen into six huge buttons that you can easily press from far away. Of course, none of them did anything useful, so you ended up killing the car dock UI to go back to the regular interface. My most common mode of using this was to flip back and forth between the nav system and Pandora.

This is what's most annoying to me. While I agree that the car dock mode isn't very good, I love that when I put the Nexus One in its desktop dock, it automatically brought up the clock.

But because these "docks" merely charge the phone through a micro USB cable, there's nothing to tell the phone what it's plugged into. I guess the desktop dock I linked to in my last post could have something in it that identified it as a dock, but I doubt they went to that effort considering what they did for the car dock.

I guess I understand the theory that Verizon is trying to appease their phone manufacturers, mainly Motorola, but don't they realize that it's very likely that Motorola will be Google-owned in a little while? Why piss off Google so much?

And as for Samsung, why did they bother even putting those contacts on the Verizon phone if they weren't going to use them? Was it just cheaper to keep them that it was to design a completely different accessory line?

I wonder how long it will be before someone tries putting the Verizon GN in one of the docks with the contacts. I wonder if it would work...

I'd be happy if they had a dock that merely shorted together some of those pins as a way for the phone to know that it's docked and behave differently.

I'm interested in hearing some opinions of the Galaxy Nexus from empeggers. The LTE version in particular. From what I've read on the XDA forums, The LTE version is getting a lot of crap. Most of the complaints seem to be either battery life, screen quality variances, OS speed, and (of course) the camera.

As far as my GSM Nexus goes, I still think it's the best phone I've handled. My father has an iPhone 4S now, so I've been able to play with that device more intimately since getting the Nexus. My opinion really hasn't changed with relation to the 4S. Yes, the camera on the iPhone 4S is better, but once you get a handle of the Galaxy Nexus camera, I think it's at least as good as the iPhone 4. To put it simply, I don't find the Galaxy Nexus camera to be detrimental to my overall opinion of the device.

I have an update regarding my switch to prepaid T-Mobile USA from my long-standing postpaid AT&T service. After spending more time with the T-Mobile service, I concluded that it's not for me... even at the extreme discount. The coverage of 3G service is far worse than AT&T. I haven't seen AT&T fall back on EDGE service in over a year. However, T-Mobile still has a ton of areas around here without 3G. Even my house is in an EDGE zone, and I live right on top of the New York State Thruway. My opinion is that it's more important to have slower 3G service in more areas than blistering HSPA+ service in very few. To make matters worse, a tower near my house was down for a few days over the Christmas holiday. This caused me to experience absolutely no voice service at home. It was the final straw. Luckily, I still had my AT&T account active. I simply swapped my SIM into the Nexus and went on my way from there. The petaband radio in the Nexus saved the day.

One interesting/unfortunate thing is how AT&T provisions accounts for HSPA+ access. When the Motorola Atrix 4G came to AT&T, it came configured with a different APN than every other device even going back to the Cingular days. The thought around the web is that this APN is only for HSPA+ "4G" phones provisioned with a "4G" data plan. Likewise, there is also a new APN usable by only LTE devices like the Galaxy S II Skyrocket. Since my AT&T SIM is from an iPhone 4 which is merely an HSDPA 7.2 Mbps device, I might not have been able to make full use of the HSPA+ speeds of the Nexus.

To remedy this, I did the only logical thing. I bought a cheap second-hand Atrix for $200, put my iPhone 4 microSIM in it, called AT&T from it, and told them I had an Atrix now. The agent promptly switched my dataplan from the iPhone 3G plan to the "4G" HSPA+ unlimited plan without any fuss. Now that my curiosity about AT&T dataplan provisioning is satiated, I have a pretty nice Atrix to unload. I have the option of returning it to the seller within 30 days, but maybe someone here might want it.

That's right! not only am I giving you a riveting story about AT&T's silly data policies, but I'm also gifting you the opportunity to pick up a sweet Atrix for a nice price. The Atrix is used, but it's in very good condition. There is some lint buildup in the earpiece grille and some marks showing where a case once was, but it's in really nice condition. The battery seems to hold a charge without any issue. The software is at 2.3.4 which I assume is current. The device is locked to AT&T, but $20 could probably take care of that. Software is stock, but I have the motoblur bypass code which I will provide free of charge! The phone does not include a charger or the dongle for the little HDMI port on the side of the phone. The backlight for the capacitive buttons along the bottom is uneven, but the screen itself is flawless. I have $200 into this thing and that's what I want. If interested, PM me. If nobody wants it, it will be returned on Monday.

At this point my number one complaint is the accessory support. It's weird to say that I feel betrayed by a manufacturer/carrier, and when I think that I also have to remember that there's worse things in the world

But still, I've followed this phone from rumors to announcement. Through speculation and rumors to standing outside a Verizon store on release day. To have Samsung and Verizon screw this phone up so much is infuriating. I really want to find someone at Samsung and ask them why the LTE version of the phone has those contacts on it. Was it just too much money to change the manufacturing line?

Or rather, isn't this something that journalists are supposed to do? I've been waiting for someone from Engadget or the Verge to hold Samsung/Verizon's feet to the fire, but I don't think that's going to happen. It's too minor a story in the grand scheme of consumer electronics. But I'm not sure they'd know how to do it even if they were interested...

Anyway, that's my major complaint. I still don't have a dock and that's frustrating for my daily routine. Other than that I've not had problems with the screen (I thought I did at first, but I for some reason it's not bothering me now), the battery life is sufficient for my needs, and the reception is what I'd hoped for. The speeds on 4G are still insane, too.

While it wasn't about accessories, The Verge did criticize Samsung recently, and the pressure along with customer demand did seem to shift things a little.

If Samsung doesn't care about customers, how can it hope to keep them?

Samsung said to be reviewing Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab ICS upgrades in response to demand.

My ten cents, having switched to a Galaxy Nexus on Verizon on the morning it came out:

- The camera is fine, sometimes brilliant. The ninnies who complain of inadequate megapixel counts should go get a real camera. My iPhone 3G's paltry two (?) megapixel camera took brilliant images. My Droid X's 8 megapixel camera was total crap. My Galaxy Nexus's 5 megapixel camera is actually pretty good. The built-in camera app is also pretty nice, including a panorama auto-stitching feature (which *almost* works) and a time-lapse feature. It also shoots stupid fast. The responsiveness is more like a pro D-SLR than anything else.

- The high-resolution screen is brilliant. My only complaint is that the "ahh, it's dark, so I'll dim the screen" sensor isn't very smart, and the screen only seems to have two modes: wonderfully bright (and heat generating) and insufficiently bright (regardless of ambient lighting).

- Migrating from the Droid X to the Galaxy Nexus was remarkably painless overall. Most old apps just work.

- Verizon's 4G LTE network is the bomb. It's just staggeringly fast. I've seen 22 megabits down and with better latency than my DSL connection. I sometimes seriously question whether I'd rather hook to somebody's WiFi or just use Verizon instead.

- Battery life ain't pretty. Charging times also seem a bit prolonged. By having a charger on my office desk, in my car, etc., I'm able to make this work fine. I always leave the office with a full charge.

- Unlike my Droid X, the GPS support seems to be stable. The Bluetooth support seems to have some bugginess about it.

- I really do want the proper car mount kit. I'll wait. A bit. Grumble.

- Android 4's new interface is very attractive, smooth, and polished. About the only thing I find myself wondering about is that they did away with the traditional menu button. Now, for old apps, a menu button still appears on the bottom while for new apps, the menu button could be pretty much anywhere. You don't just know to look for it in the same old place. This was clearly done with deliberation. I'm just not sure I agree with the result.

Dan, do you know how to make the panorama mode take higher resolution photos? It seems like the end result is horribly low res, so I've not been using it...

I've attached a sample (a bad one), and it's only 449px tall!

I don't really understand how the software works. I ended up with 2021×934 pixels doing a roughly 180-degree panorama, and that with the phone rubber-banded to a tripod head to keep it absolutely level. I imagine the vertical resolution has something to do with how extremely they need to crop it to get a rectangular result.

They just did away with the menu button on the phone, not in ICS, right? I hope I still have menu button functionality on my NS4G when it gets ICS.

I have a Dell Streak 7 which originally shipped with Froyo, but now has official support for Honeycomb. If Gingerbread to ICS is similar, the device's menu button still works, but you will also have another menu button inside native ICS apps.

I think the lack of a menu button on the Galaxy Nexus is a little odd. There's plenty of real estate along the bottom of the screen. It could easily be present and actually is when you're running an non-ICS app.

I agree. I really disagree with this one design aspect of ICS. I think they've completely failed with the new button layout. There have been several times already where within the same app, the menu dots will move from the top of the app to the bottom, or in an email you'll have two menu buttons.

From what I've heard, the Android team didn't like that developers just threw everything that didn't fit into the menu button. My reaction to that is: so? I liked that! I liked that I could assume that if I couldn't figure out how to do something, I could just hit the menu button and usually what I was looking for was there. My thought is that it's better than either cluttering up the interface or making things hard to find. The problem is, whether they agree with me or not, developers are STILL going to hide options in the menu button, but now that menu button moves all over the place, and that's an awful idea.

I'm still upset about the search button. I keep wanting to use it in my apps to perform a search, and I especially keep wanting to hold it down to do a voice command. That part drives me nuts.

And all of this is so they could have a dedicated app switcher button? I'd be amazed if the average user wanted that button or used it. I like the new app switcher, but I really wish it was still mapped to the home button hold.

Ah well, I really should stop ranting about this dumb issue

Since virtually every phone has gone with buttons that don't articulate, it makes sense for ICS (and Honeycomb before it) to make the next step and do the buttons purely in software.

But do they need to crop out THAT much? I'm seeing 1536px horizontal on regular photos, and most of my panoramas are ending up with less than 600? I can only theorize that it's because the phone doesn't have enough memory or processing power to deal with larger panoramas...

Yeah, I get that -- I just didn't know if ICS on the older hardware with dedicated menu buttons would ignore the menu buttons in newer apps -- i.e. if they'd just disappear the whole concept of the menu button. If that's not the case, then I'm okay with it -- thinking I'll be skipping the Galaxy Nexus anyway.

I think the idea was that they wanted applications to own the menu button themselves rather than forcing it to be a dedicated button. Apps that are built against older API versions will have a real menu button on the bottom. Newer apps have the option to not have it.

Like it or not, this is the future for every Android phone.

Don't want to be a damper here. But... I just returned our two Galaxy Nexes my wife and I got January 19 from Verizon. The phones were absolutely horrible. Virtually every call would break up and/or disconnect on both phones, so much so I was forced to buy a Net10 form at Target to use while I was contacting Verizon. The Voicemails on both phones would not accept our passwords. We complained about this daily. The problem was with the the OS. Apparently, if you had the volume turned up over halfway the tones would somehow put in ghost characters and make the voicemail not accept passwords. Verizon said Samsung was aware of the problem and working on a fix. The other thing was the battery. If you ran the phone on its 4g you would have to charge it twice a day. Anyway, we finally had enough and Verizon exchanged the phones for two RAZRS. These phones work great and are simple to use. The original Nexus I paid 300 and 250 for (before tax). Verizon sent me reconditioned RAZRS which now go for 200 without any SD card. So between that, the new cases and the extended batteries I bought for the Nexi and THEN the RAZRS, plus the SD cards I bought for the Razrs, I'm out over 350 bucks. I will not deal with Verizon again once the contract expires. Sprint is due for bankruptcy soon, so I don't know who'll I'll switch to. Anyway, I talked to Samsung again and told them what happened. We pretty much buy Samsung everything, so I was surprised by the Nexus defaults. The guy at Samsung said they are aware of the Nexus problems and they are working with Google to develop a new operating system. I'm glad that many here have had no trouble with their Galaxy Nexuses. I had mega problems. I bought the phone because my daughter's Galaxy Epic (sprint) worked so well. Anyway, live and learn.

So, ranger6, who do you work for? This being your first post and only one here, it reeks of a spammy astroturf account.

That being said, I picked up an unlocked GSM version since I'm on T-Mobile, and have liked it much more than my previous phone.

I'm still adjusting to the new was of things in ICS, and I agree that the ... menus bouncing between the top and bottom is starting to get on my nerves as well.

I tossed some strings from ranger6's post into Google, and the precise only hit seems to be here. Hitting on some of the points in the post:

- After living with the phone myself, I've had zero voicemail problems, but then I don't use VZ voicemail. I use Google Voice.

- Indeed battery life is crud, but I've now populated my home, desk, and cars with chargers. When I leave work, I've got a fully charged phone and it lasts until I get home, no matter how much I pound on it.

- Sound quality is fine, although I wish the ringer was louder. Some third-party people have come up with hacks to fix this.

- The menu thing isn't as bad once you recognize that it's intended to be location-context relevant, as in, "ahh, we had more things that we might have wanted to put here as buttons, but we ran out of room, so here they are on a menu instead." Still, if all you want to do is get to the damn configuration settings, there's no longer any standard way to get there. (Not that there really was in the old days.)

I really don't see how any of this could be a problem with the phone across the board. There would be so many reports about this it would be all over the place.

I also only use Google Voice (because why would you use the provider's voicemail these days anyway?), so I haven't had any problems like these, but I still don't think every GN has this issue.

Battery life is an issue with every phone with a 4G radio. We haven't made enough advancements in the realm of battery technology to get around that yet, though advancements are being made in the power efficiency of mobile tech. In the meantime, like Dan I've outfitted myself with chargers at home and in my car, and I don't have any problems if I use them.

I'm retired, except for doing taxes and managing investments. I used to be Regional Fashion Controller for a now vanishing retailer.

I am no expert on cell phones and the Galaxy Nexus was my first Smartphone. Yes, some of the problems may have resided with Verizon, particularly the voicemail one. Still, I can't believe all the problems were solely due to Verizon. Could I have experienced a better phone operation with a different carrier? Sure...but I stayed with the poison I know rather than the one I don't.

Sorry if we jumped on you. We're a little used to bots coming to our board and posting responses, though yours seemed better than those, so apologies for insulting you as well

Still, I must say it's genuinely odd for you to have experienced the same weird problems with both of the phones you purchased, when this is the first I've heard of such problems with the phone. Have you gone to AndroidForums.com with this to see if anyone else was having these issues? I know it's not a problem anymore, but it might be interesting to see if anyone shares these experiences with you. You're drawing from a pretty small pool here, as our membership is small to begin with, but has probably around 6-8 Android users (I think), and about 3 Galaxy Nexus users...

*edit*
But after checking those boards back, feel free to come back here and hang out! We have a great bunch of folks here.

I have the Samsung Rogue, and it's bad. The hardware is all good, and probably another week of coding and the phone would have been great, but it's not.

My last 4 phones have been Samsung, and each one is progressively worse than the one before. There won't be any Samsung phones in my future...

Thankfully my contract is up this month and I can get rid of it.

Sorry to say, but that's not a big surprise. What made you go with that phone specifically?

The wife insisted...

I also thought it weird that both phones were having the same problem. No, I did not go to boards to check for similar problems. Up to these two phones, I had gotten all of my phones for free with the contract renewal. And then the Nexis cost over three hundred dollars a piece, and I'm forced to buy Net Phones to make unaborted calls? No that called for action--not sympatico views. I haven't had any trouble with the RAZRS. I actually wanted the RAZR Max in trade for the Nexis, but Verizon said they could not do that...

Just a heads-up... The GSM Nexus is available for $459.99 today. The price of this phone is falling through the floor. It's really a great bargain at this price. My GSM Nexus is still going strong.

I bought a Galaxy S II from Daily Steals once. They took a week to ship, but other than that, they seem good.

I'm sorry to hear that. I called Samsung prior to my returning the two Nexus. They said they were aware of the problems and would be working on fixing them soon. I replied that I couldn't wait that long; I have diabetics calling me every day and I can't have my phone breaking up 3 times per call. I told the guy candidly that I was pretty much a Samsung person on everything device I buy that they make. But that would no longer be the case. Not only will I not strictly buy Samsung anymore, I will leave Verizon at the first opportunity. I wish you good luck with your next phone. I love my RAZR but I don't know whether it's dumb luck that it works okay or more continued testing by Motorola.

I bought two phones direct from Verizon for 250.00 and 300.00 (before tax). At the that time the price for the phone was over $600.00. I dis-recommend the phone to everyone I talk to. I hope you have better luck with your Nexus than I did with mine.

I've had my Nexus since November 2011 and paid $800 for the privilege. I don't regret it and have had no problems in all that time. Please keep in mind I have the HSPA+ version of the phone, not the Verizon LTE version.

I've used my phone with great results on T-Mobile and AT&T. You can't discount the possibility your Nexus issues are due to Verizon's LTE network which is still quite new and suffers outages regularly, though I doubt Verizon runs Voice over LTE yet in your area yet.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... It all makes sense now. Thanks for your response.

Ranger6