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Android Hardware Thread - 2010 Edition

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Gingerbread seems to offer less to the actual consumers and more towards the developers which in turns leads to better apps and such for the consumers.
 
zedge said:
I don't know, it makes sense the Nexus S is the way it is. Why release some uber powerful dual core phone that will blow away any current Android phone on the market? How would that work for developers to develop for the majority of current high end (millions) of 1ghz snapdragons and Cortex based phones? I think its better the Nexus S is more in line with the current top line phones, this makes apps and games that would perform well across the board. Not apps that are great on the uber Nexus S and crap on current phones. Just my thoughts here. If other manufactures want dual core power houses then they can make them, at least the current crop will not be left in the dust.
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What do you think the original Nexus One did? Preserving the status quo would get us nowhere. Developers can (and do) adapt.
 
Poody said:
I do not have problems with the gingerbread because it was mentioned by the time google hired palm guy, it was already too late to implement his ideas in this iteration of the os. thats why i believe we will see a completely refreshed gui in honeycomb. , but the phone hardware itself is another story and utterly disappointing. This would have been the perfect phone for google to, again, break the benchmark with phones with dual core and tegra. But somehow i think google got greedy with the potential sales this holiday.
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It just kind of irks me( and probably a lot of android enthusiasts) that we must now wait for another release for what was promised now. If you remember at Google IO earlier this year they had a lot of Gingerbread assets on display(new music player, market store, music streaming). I would have been happy if they even skipped 2.3 and went straight to 3.0 even if there was another 4-6 month wait. Why bother to flaunt a black status bar lol?
 
alternade said:
It just kind of irks me( and probably a lot of android enthusiasts) that we must now wait for another release for what was promised now. If you remember at Google IO earlier this year they had a lot of Gingerbread assets on display(new music player, market store, music streaming). I would have been happy if they even skipped 2.3 and went straight to 3.0 even if there was another 4-6 month wait. Why bother to flaunt a black status bar lol?
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Had to get it out there for the game stuff to support the playstation phone IMO.
 
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dmobileandyrubin0454.jpg
 
Of course the email would be from Duarte. :lol

Glad to see a proper UI for larger displays—it’s the main drawback for the the Galaxy Tab right now.
 
giga said:
Of course the email would be from Duarte. :lol

Glad to see a proper UI for larger displays—it’s the main drawback for the the Galaxy Tab right now.
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The mail client shown in the pictures looks like the mail client made by Samsung for the Galaxy Tab to me, though.

Not sure what exactly is going on in the lower picture though...
 
zoku88 said:
The mail client shown in the pictures looks like the mail client made by Samsung for the Galaxy Tab to me, though.
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I’m assuming Google will be retooling the UI for all parts of the OS like Apple did for iOS. Apart from the customized apps from Samsung themselves, the Tab is still largely using a phone UI and marketplace.
 
giga said:
I’m assuming Google will be retooling the UI for all parts of the OS like Apple did for iOS. Apart from the customized apps from Samsung themselves, the Tab is still largely using a phone UI and marketplace.
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I'll just wait and see what Google does. I don't really have much faith in big changes.
 
Honeycomb looks to be what Google promised Gingerbread would be at their IO a few months ago. Hurry up with the GUI change. Android definitely needs more polish.

And buy Doubletwist already.
 
Bboy AJ said:
Honeycomb looks to be what Google promised Gingerbread would be at their IO a few months ago. Hurry up with the GUI change. Android definitely needs more polish.

And buy Doubletwist already.
Click to expand...

Doubletwist is out of Google's Business Strategy so it will not happen, it revolves around localized storage.
 
Bboy AJ said:
Honeycomb looks to be what Google promised Gingerbread would be at their IO a few months ago. Hurry up with the GUI change. Android definitely needs more polish.

And buy Doubletwist already.
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ugh no. Doubletwist is horrible.
 
alternade said:
ugh no. Doubletwist is horrible.
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When is the last time you used it? It was horrible about a year ago. Serviceable now.

Google might love the cloud but until they give me TBs of media space and convince my carrier to give me unlimited bandwidth, they'll have to deal with local syncing.
 
Bboy AJ said:
When is the last time you used it? It was horrible about a year ago. Serviceable now.

Google might love the cloud but until they give me TBs of media space and convince my carrier to give me unlimited bandwidth, they'll have to deal with local syncing.
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I just tried it out again when AirSync came out. It doesnt index my itunes files properly, is sloooooooow, limited market support, and forces me to use the android app.
 
alternade said:
I just tried it out again when AirSync came out. It doesnt index my itunes files properly, is sloooooooow, limited market support, and forces me to use the android app.
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I tried it again when air sync came out, too. Strange. I just make a playlist in iTunes then sync that over the air. It's slow as fuck, though, for sure.
 
brotkasten said:
seriously? I can't see anything special or better than iOS.
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If Android 3.x can get file management right, then the iPad 2 will look stale out of the gate. That's the one thing that pisses me off about iOS devices.
 
alternade said:
ugh no. Doubletwist is horrible.
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Doubletwist isn't that bad, but it's not perfect.

I would be more interested in a partnership that was iron clad with Amazon in which they provided the player and music (offline and streaming) and eventually the video service.
 
Bboy AJ said:
I tried it again when air sync came out, too. Strange. I just make a playlist in iTunes then sync that over the air. It's slow as fuck, though, for sure.
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I have had terrible luck with AirSync. 90% of the time it says my phone has Wi-Fi disabled, even when it's not. Then in the few times it's gotten past that, my computer never finds my phone. I got them to successfully connect once, but I was in a hurry and didn't have time to get anything synced across.

I need to play with it a little more, but if it stays this flaky, I'll just stick with USB syncing.
 
Pctx said:
If Android 3.x can get file management right, then the iPad 2 will look stale out of the gate. That's the one thing that pisses me off about iOS devices.
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iOS has been stale ever since iPhone 4. The user experience is essentially the same, despite advertisements stating otherwise. However, that's also an advantage as consumers can depend on that user experience.
 
Bleh. Took them like 8 hours to bore me out of the relatively underwhelming update which I had been waiting for since May, when they bored me out of the update which they had just released.

Jesus it's like a never ending circle of excitement and greener grass with this damn Android.
 
SRG01 said:
OS has been stale ever since iPhone 4. The user experience is essentially the same, despite advertisements stating otherwise. However, that's also an advantage as consumers can depend on that user experience.
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This is why I'm kinda hesitant on getting another iphone and I've been contemplating a android phone or WP7. If only the epic was on att it would be a no brainer.
 
Pein said:
This is why I'm kinda hesitant on getting another iphone and I've been contemplating a android phone or WP7. If only the epic was on att it would be a no brainer.
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Yup. I love switching mobile OSes. When I switched from my iPhone 2G to the 3GS, sure, it had better hardware but man it was boring. Getting new hardware on the same OS doesn't feel fresh. It just seems like a slight upgrade but one that doesn't make my life more enjoyable. I think I'm keeping my N1 for a bit then moving over to WP7, unless Honeycomb makes the cloud real. There's been so much talk about the cloud for years but it hasn't happened yet.

WP7's Zune streaming is awesome and a killer feature, along with XBL integration. Once that matures, it becomes very appealing.
 
I like they way you think. The only thing which would ever hold me back is the purchases on the market, but I am going to wait to see what WP7 offers and will seriously consider it if I find that it's good.
 
SRG01 said:
iOS has been stale ever since iPhone 4. The user experience is essentially the same, despite advertisements stating otherwise. However, that's also an advantage as consumers can depend on that user experience.
Click to expand...
Actually they really can't. Apple's core ideas are the same (icons in a grid) but they have switched things around like getting rid of the quick access to favorites and replacing it with the multitasking dock or replacing the auto-rotation lock switch with a mute switch. Dan Benjamin (of the Talk Show) has an anecdote about his toddler who can no longer figure out how to restart apps on the iOS 4.x so he had to downgrade the iPad to iOS 3.2. Viticci (of MacStories) tells a tale of a neighbor who couldn't figure out why her iPhone4 was so "slow" until he showed her how to close all the games stored in memory. And more changes are on the way as Apple will have to shoehorn a decent notifications system into iOS to replace the crapfest they have now. Apple tries to keep the UI the same by hiding all the changes that have been made (behind the grid of icons) but consumers still stumble confusingly unto the changed details anyway and it bores the pants off the rest of us as Apple tries to be as conservative as possible.
 
Oh man, the Moto tablet looks nice. Honeycomb looks great, almost like a desktop-lite experience as opposed to a mobile-on-steroids that Apple went with on iPad (though it was obviously hard to tell much at all from what was shown). I think Apple gets a pass with iPad for just porting over the wall of icons/dock from the iPhone. Of course, they get that pass because the actual apps and general experience is so nice.

Google Maps 5 looks insane!

Apparently there's a Chrome OS event today, that should be interesting.
 
Charred Greyface said:
Actually they really can't. Apple's core ideas are the same (icons in a grid) but they have switched things around like getting rid of the quick access to favorites and replacing it with the multitasking dock or replacing the auto-rotation lock switch with a mute switch. Dan Benjamin (of the Talk Show) has an anecdote about his toddler who can no longer figure out how to restart apps on the iOS 4.x so he had to downgrade the iPad to iOS 3.2. Viticci (of MacStories) tells a tale of a neighbor who couldn't figure out why her iPhone4 was so "slow" until he showed her how to close all the games stored in memory. And more changes are on the way as Apple will have to shoehorn a decent notifications system into iOS to replace the crapfest they have now. Apple tries to keep the UI the same by hiding all the changes that have been made (behind the grid of icons) but consumers still stumble confusingly unto the changed details anyway and it bores the pants off the rest of us as Apple tries to be as conservative as possible.
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Apple is going to do what Steve Jobs says Apple is going to do. That is a blessing as well as a curse.

The major players now being Android, iOS and WP7 are fighting for what the user wants.

Android is about being open and customizable to what the user values.
iOS is about connecting people with what they love most in the way Apple sees fit.
WP7 is about getting the information you need, quick and without much effort.

Looking at those values, that is what is at the core of each OS. I'm not surprised to hear stories about toddlers being confused about how to restart an app or even "phone slowness" (Of which I addressed in the iPhone 4 thread of which no one really has an answer for) is going to become a common occurrence.

The question to be asked now is which company do you (or people in general) trust more to handle things the way you think they should be handled?

Open Source vs. Closed source aside, the values I suggested above are what resonates with consumers and thankfully, we still have choice.
 
Pctx said:
WP7 is about getting the information you need, quick and without much effort.
.
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Uh, of course that's what their whole marketing campaign is about, but in practice, how is WP7 any faster at getting information you want than the others?
 
Futureman said:
Uh, of course that's what their whole marketing campaign is about, but in practice, how is WP7 any faster at getting information you want than the others?
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Interface which is what my comment was to in the post above.

The live tiles is actually quite brilliant on paper and in execution. The lock screen on the WP7 is also very useful as well.
 
so give a specific example on getting information quicker on WP7? how is a live tile any different than me putting a weather widget or email widget on my Android homescreen, other than I guess it probably looks somewhat clunkier on Android.

edit: to be clear, i'm not trolling... I don't really have any experience w/ WP7, and I'm wondering if there is truth to their advertising.
 
Futureman said:
Oh man, the Moto tablet looks nice. Honeycomb looks great, almost like a desktop-lite experience as opposed to a mobile-on-steroids that Apple went with on iPad (though it was obviously hard to tell much at all from what was shown). I think Apple gets a pass with iPad for just porting over the wall of icons/dock from the iPhone. Of course, they get that pass because the actual apps and general experience is so nice.

Google Maps 5 looks insane!

Apparently there's a Chrome OS event today, that should be interesting.
Click to expand...
The difference between the two are basically their home screens. Android (as it is now and will be with Honeycomb as well) has a desktop home screen metaphor where you can organize different widgets or items throughout its 5 windows. We can see it now in Honeycomb with a bookmarks widget in the middle and a maps shortcut on the right.

Apple right now is still stuck at the wall of icons home screen, but they did adapt the rest of the OS and applications for a more desktop-like experience so I don’t think they got a pass in that department. (http://mattgemmell.com/2010/03/05/ipad-application-design)
 
Futureman said:
so give a specific example on getting information quicker on WP7? how is a live tile any different than me putting a weather widget or email widget on my Android homescreen, other than I guess it probably looks somewhat clunkier on Android.

edit: to be clear, i'm not trolling... I don't really have any experience w/ WP7, and I'm wondering if there is truth to their advertising.
Click to expand...
Sure thing Futureman... and I don't think you're trolling. ;-)

WP7 was built on the premise of getting relevant data to the user in the most unobtrusive way possible. The lock screen shows cell coverage, battery, wallpaper, time and meetings. Nothing fancy, but straight and to the point. The live tiles also get you to what you value most quickly. Not only that but the interaction with the information is very intuitive and user friendly. (a link to the concepts of the UI, click here)

My point in all of that is Microsoft designed their hardware and software to be glanced at quickly while on the move. I'm not saying that you cannot do that on an Android phone or iPhone, but those aren't the principles of the OS. Most Android phones are meant to connect and engage you with your content (which is fine) as well as the iPhone... plays games and makes phone calls. Great! My point is that the choice is up to the user in which they vote with their dollars on which one does what they it to do.

A little off-topic but I'll run with it. I've got a 3GS. I've had it since my Nexus One snafu about a year ago. I just did the jailbreak on my 3GS this past summer or fall and I loved it! However, its not without limitations of which I find myself longing to go back to Android. Enter WP7. I played with it for about 30-60 minutes at an AT&T store about a week or two ago and I loved the thing! Now, I'm not one to really love anything Microsoft (since I work with it all day long at my job) but they got something right with this software.

Fast forward to now. I've arranged my cellphone to have no icons on my default home screen and 4 simple icons in my dock: Phone, email, Calendar and Safari. Everything else I've got tucked away in folders on the second screen. Why might you ask did I do this? I was tired of looking at the icons on my wallpaper and I seriously had information overload in terms of what was on the screen. I yearned for the simplicity of WP7 w/ the customization of Android and what I got was maybe a little of both. I've got lockinfo (jailbreak app) showing me what I need, a home screen with a nice wallpaper that isn't marred with apps floating on it and I don't feel like I've got information overload on my phone now.

(IMO)The beauty of Android is that you can have whatever type of experience you want on the OS as it is custom tailored to the user. The iPhone gives you the iPhone experience that Apple is wanting to sell people which a majority of the people really love. WP7 wants to be a phone that simply connects you when you want to be connected.

That's why I love all of the competition right now--- these companies are pushing the boundaries on what is technologically possible and package that into a great user experience. Like I said above, it is up to the consumer to choose, which is right for them.

(sorry if that sounded like a long rant)
 
Just now finished watching the Moto Tablet video on Engadget. Very, very cool stuff. Google is really doing an amazing job of not getting stuck in the minutia of "...well Apple has done this with the iPhone or iPad..." and if their integration of split API's pays off, we're going to see developers rewarded with (hopefully) plug-n-play code to upscale apps but have built in different views.

Really amazing stuff.
 
Pctx said:
Just now finished watching the Moto Tablet video on Engadget. Very, very cool stuff. Google is really doing an amazing job of not getting stuck in the minutia of "...well Apple has done this with the iPhone or iPad..." and if their integration of split API's pays off, we're going to see developers rewarded with (hopefully) plug-n-play code to upscale apps but have built in different views.

Really amazing stuff.
Click to expand...

Which pretty much reaffirms their statement of Froyo not being built for tablets.
If you have the screen space why not use it, intuitively, instead of just up-scaling everything from a mobile screen.
 
SimleuqiR said:
Which pretty much reaffirms their statement of Froyo not being built for tablets.
If you have the screen space why not use it, intuitively, instead of just up-scaling everything from a mobile screen.
Click to expand...
I agree. It seems like the Galaxy Tablet had better get 3.x (Honeycomb) on it ASAP or it will be left in the dust.
 
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