Slashdot Mirror
Google's Nexus One Phone Launches
The press conference at the Googleplex is over and Google's Nexus One phone has launched (official Google blog announcement). The NY Times confirms the bare details: manufactured by HTC; $529 unlocked, $179 with 2-year T-Mobile contract; coming to Verizon in the US, and Vodaphone in Europe, in "Spring 2010." The Times notes one desirable feature: "[Google] has also voice-enabled all text boxes in the device, so a user can speak into the device to, for instance, compose an e-mail, rather than type the text of the email." Walt Mossberg points out one limitation: "On the Nexus One, only 190 megabytes of its total 4.5 gigabytes of memory is allowed for storing apps. On the $199 iPhone, nearly all of the 16 gigabytes of memory can be used for apps." No answers yet to the obvious questions: can it tether on T-Mobile? Will it allow VoIP?
Since T-Mobile already allows VOIP without any problems on their existing phones and data plans, and since the Android app store has at least two good SIP applications why would there be any question if VOIP is allowed or not?
For this current model, I think the voice feature will be the most significant: every text field is voice enabled, making the touchscreen-only keyboard a bit less painful.
If they use the same technology as they use for the Google Voice transcriptions then it won't be so useful. My experience is that it gets 20-25% of the words right. SOMETIMES the transcriptions I get are enough to get the jist of what the call was about - other times it's like a bad babblefish version of it.
Unless they're using something different, I think Voice Recognition has a long way to do - and may never quite be there. Heck even for real people it's hard to understand just what someone said.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Unfortunately the only plan available has but 500 anytime minutes. I think T-Mo/Google are a bit insane for this move. The phone is, IMO, targeted at power users and those with disposable incomes - the same market that talks a lot. I personally hit 1200-1500 anytime minutes a month. This 500 minute plan would be insanity for someone like myself.
Also, the 500 minute plan from T-Mo is $40/mo if you're not getting a Nexus but should you decide to grab the phone and the accompanying plan, you'll be paying $80/mo. What is the logic here?
The most significant ones to me are:
TTS
1GHz Snapdragon processor
Android 2.1
5MP camera
Verizon doesn't use SIM cards - it's CDMA like Sprint.
Sprint is not the largest cellular network. Sprint is either third or fourth largest in the US in terms of customers and covers both less people and less geographic area than AT&T or Verizon. Plus, Sprint isn't technically a cellular carrier. To split hairs, cellular service is at 800MHz while PCS service is at 1900MHz (which is what Sprint uses for their CDMA network - their iDEN network being a SMR network). Normally, I wouldn't nitpick like that, but Sprint made a big deal about being all-PCS a while back calling themselves "the clear alternative to cellular".
HTC has had good relations with Sprint so I'm guessing that a Sprint version might come, but it won't come quickly. Sprint is losing customers at a high rate. There's no incentive for a phone manufacturer to want to put effort into debuting on Sprint given that the line of phones (Pre, Hero, Moment - which were all great phones) Sprint has gotten haven't done so well.
T-Mobile is easy to start out with because they don't require lots of customization and GSM phones can be re-used all over the world. Verizon customers are clamoring for an iPhone competitor (as evidenced by Droid sales). AT&T has the iPhone. Sprint just isn't winning customers. So, it's to be expected that Sprint's going to be at the bottom of the heap after lackluster results for quite a while.
This Engadget review addresses Nexus vs. Droid in some depth:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/nexus-one-review/
I have over 1.3 Gigs of apps on my iPhone. It's not hard to use up that much space on an iPhone for apps. There are tons of apps out there that are well over 100mb.
Sure you may not play games, but then what about 3rd party mapping software which preloads all the maps to the phone.
Having only 190Mb for apps is a huge deal breaker for me.
In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!
-Faster CPU
-Better integrated with Google apps and services (ie: no using Bing when the Google Search is better integrated with the phone)
-Runs on something other than Verizon (unlike the Droid), namely ATT & TMo.
-More storage space
-(for those who dont like em or the added bulkiness) it doesnt have a physical keyboard (for me, that's a drawback)
-Android 2.1
-Cheaper overall plans from TMo (since the Droid only runs on Verizon, I think it's a valid comparison point)
StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
its all in the GSM/CDMA licensing. nokia, motorola, etc. all have patents you have to pay for. so the CDMA chip is like $100. $1 to make. $99 is licensing.
number are of course examples but the intent is true.
$30 "unlimited" data, $10 unlimited messaging. Standard T-Mobile rates.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo!
To be really fair, quality of these pictures are getting close to the first 2-3MP cameras. Sure, you don't have a (real) flash nor a zoom, but you carry it around everywhere.
While these camera phones were just a gadget a couple of years ago, they can now take pretty nice shots. Not in the dark of course.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Ok, can someone explain how it can display 720x480 resolution video on a screen that only has a resolution of 400x800? I'm not saying that the numbers are wrong, just that if they're right, I don't understand how it works.
same way HD camcorders do on 100Kpix displays
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
android to this android developer blog post, ogg has been supported since feb 2008 in the SDK, which is at least several major releases of the OS.
My understanding is that it's a security measure.
What exactly they're trying to protect against or even if it actually helps, I do not know.
The SD card is FAT-formatted because the phone presents it over USB as a block device, so that PCs and Macs can pretend it's a camera or other media device. But the use of FAT means that the card lacks Unix file permissions, in particular the owner/group info that stops one app from stomping on another app's data. (The device is mounted noexec, to prevent temptation/abuse.) I've seen talk of using Linux's encrypted loopback abilities at some future point, but it's been on the wishlist since the G1 came out so I wouldn't hold my breath.
Range Voting: preference intensity matters
Yes, Android currently only lets you install application packages on internal memory. Application developers know this, so there's a major effort made to keep the application footprint small, and then have the applications download and store additional resources on the SD card, which has no such limitations. As an example, a game would store its levels/media on the SD card. Or in the case of an offline GPS app, the map data would be stored on the SD card.
With my Droid, I've yet to get anywhere close to this limitation, and I'm always on the hunt for neat apps on the market. I currently have 162MB free (I believe it originally had 250MB available).
Yes, it's not inconceivable that you'll run into this limitation, but at the same time, it doesn't come up all that often. Don't be concerned that your iPhone is using 3GB for app storage...on an Android device those apps would be putting 95% of their data on the SD card.