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Verizon & Android news

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I upgraded to the Droid Eris yesterday. I love the phone, but I quickly found out that having the Internet and all that on my phone just is not for me. I felt far too connected at all times. Also, my hands are far too big to type on a virtual keyboard that small.

I ended up taking it back and sticking with my old phone for now.
 
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Android Taking Wind Out Of iPhone's Sails - Smartphone sales - Gizmodo




Just in time for Google to unveil its own Nexus One smartphone, ChangeWave Research reports the public is more excited than ever to buy an Android based handset — at the expense of Apple, Microsoft, and Palm.


ChangeWave surveyed 4,068 consumers in the first weeks of December and found that 21% of people looking to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days want to buy one running on Android. That's up from 6% when ChangeWave asked people in September.


Considering Verizon is spending tens of millions marketing the Droid, this shouldn't come as a shock. Google is a popular brand unto itself, so it makes sense that people are excited about its smartphones.


Apple remains the smartphone of choice for now, with 28% of the people saying they will buy an iPhone. The BlackBerry falls to third place with 18% — but interest in BlackBerry devices actually perked up. Meanwhile, Palm needs big help.
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Treo < 3%????

Just because my 755 has to connect like this?

0,1425,sz=1&i=193960,00.jpg
 
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Maybe they should have advertised the pre with one of those fair lasses instead of this alien:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGthdO7nwpU]YouTube - Palm Pre Commercial - "Read My Mind" (HDTV)[/ame]
 
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Google isn't really going to play any type of exclusive card. If you'll allow a device with their capabilities on your network, it's a done deal. The key thing for them is the tie into gmail and thus their advertising.

The capabilities of the droid, with the gps tie in, wireless, and a decent 3g connection make it a pretty amazing device. Understand, I don't have a lot of iphone experience, though I am sure much of the functionality of the iphone is the same. This allows for apps like NBA League Pass, so that they can follow black out rules yet allow streaming games, this is awesome, also you get applications like "Where" that lets you find anything around you, get gps directions, read reviews, call for reservations make it perfect in how it can use every aspect of it, all of the functions of the device tie in perfectly.

Now, all that said, there's a lot of hype and interest, but in order for this phone to really attract a good portion of the people buying smart phones, they need to work on some stuff.

The camera, though drastically improved from release, is still pretty slow. This may sound like a petty thing, but there's applications like shopsavy and google goggles that add search functionality to the camera. Shopsavy is great for places that will price match, like best buy, get the bar code, find the cheapest place and take your phone to the cashier saying "match it." Goggles, that's a new beast all together, image searching, take a picture of a book, a logo, a cd and it will find information and where you can buy it, and they are working to get this database of images increased to include places, and more objects. So, it's not that I want to get quick pictures of upskirts, I just hate a the delay when I want to use some of the functionality of the device.

The media player, it's basic, not hard to figure out but also, not really flashy. One of the key sellers of the iphone has always been carrying off the ipod. So a media player is important. Along those same lines, people have a lot invested into their itunes library, and if you can't find some way to get the droid working with itunes, you will never get those customers.

All of that said, 1 part is a hardware issue, something that is hopefully better to those fucking nexusone dickheads, the other is something that will have to be dealt with on a corporate level. Apple sees what google is doing, and it's a huge threat to them, they are already starting to remove google applications from the app store, so I doubt they are going to be jumping to help google get peoples music moved over to an android based phone.
 
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I finally had time to spend 15 minutes on an Eris and that is one heck of a phone for $99. The HTC interface is better than the Droids, and I'm eager to try out the NexusOne in a few months when Verizon gets it (apparently you can't try out the Nexus one in person at a t-mobile store, other than a rep who owns one).
All of that said, 1 part is a hardware issue, something that is hopefully better to those fucking nexusone dickheads, the other is something that will have to be dealt with on a corporate level. Apple sees what google is doing, and it's a huge threat to them, they are already starting to remove google applications from the app store, so I doubt they are going to be jumping to help google get peoples music moved over to an android based phone.
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With the open development for the Android market, compared to the tight (and often arbitrary) screening for the App Store, I imagine a third party will come up with a workaround to import iTunes into a freeware app, at least for the purposes of synching to your Android. Then they'll start profiting off an itunes-related product, and Apple's lawyers will come running, blah.

The upcoming competition between the two could be very beneficial to the end users they're battling over.

If Apple merely releases a 3GS-clone for Verizon, I'm definitely going with the google phone, particularly for the operating system and driving force behind it. Apple is innovative but restrictive, Google is innovative as well but more open in their approach (even if they have a bit of a big brother darkside to them). You won't see Google take 2.5 years to fix simple problems like copy & paste.
 
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jwinslow;1636409; said:
I finally had time to spend 15 minutes on an Eris and that is one heck of a phone for $99. The HTC interface is better than the Droids, and I'm eager to try out the NexusOne in a few months when Verizon gets it (apparently you can't try out the Nexus one in person at a t-mobile store, other than a rep who owns one).
With the open development for the Android market, compared to the tight (and often arbitrary) screening for the App Store, I imagine a third party will come up with a workaround to import iTunes into a freeware app, at least for the purposes of synching to your Android. Then they'll start profiting off an itunes-related product, and Apple's lawyers will come running, blah.

The upcoming competition between the two could be very beneficial to the end users they're battling over.

If Apple merely releases a 3GS-clone for Verizon, I'm definitely going with the google phone, particularly for the operating system and driving force behind it. Apple is innovative but restrictive, Google is innovative as well but more open in their approach (even if they have a bit of a big brother darkside to them). You won't see Google take 2.5 years to fix simple problems like copy & paste.
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I agree, the interface for the HTC's is nicer than the Droids, but the overall power of the droid really is a huge step up from the current phones, I am sure the NexusOne will be awesome, but for the next 3 months I am happy with my droid :p

And there's been a few sync apps to come out, the thing is, everytime a new version of itunes comes out, the fucking thing breaks, so it's developers fighting with a big company that is staring at google and blaming them.

The whole way the Android OS is done though, that's not something apple can attack google for, the OS is open source, you can download it and develop, and apple can't really do anything about that.

Like I said, the camera has improved dramatically, pictures look good, the video is fucking awesome, it's just slow, that's all, takes about 10 seconds to load and pictures take a little bit to actually take, but if someone is moving it will get a decent picture, unlike before where it was a blury mess.

I wanted a device that I could stream my television to, watch sporting events, keep up on my personal and business email, access my documents, play music, play video, take pictures and play games on, guess what, I got it and a whole lot more.

Overall, I am really happy with the droid, but will be jealous of the processing power of the NexusOne, both better get flash 10.1 later this year, since that was a big selling point on the Droid, that since it was Android 2.0 or later, it would have flash compatibility as soon as Adobe gets off their lazy asses and releases it.
 
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And there's been a few sync apps to come out, the thing is, everytime a new version of itunes comes out, the fucking thing breaks, so it's developers fighting with a big company that is staring at google and blaming them.
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Can you just keep the old, sync-friendly version of itunes? Do you lose something by not updating?
Overall, I am really happy with the droid, but will be jealous of the processing power of the NexusOne, both better get flash 10.1 later this year, since that was a big selling point on the Droid, that since it was Android 2.0 or later, it would have flash compatibility as soon as Adobe gets off their lazy asses and releases it.
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They said during the press conference that the Droid would get the new software for the N1. There will be some android phones which don't have the hardware power to run the new system, but that doesn't apply to the Droid.
 
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jwinslow;1636433; said:
Can you just keep the old, sync-friendly version of itunes? Do you lose something by not updating?
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Yes, but the apps on your phone will notify you when there's an update, and so far the apps haven't been backwards compatible, meaning that if you update your phone app, you might as well update itunes. It's pretty silly really, but the sync does work fine in media player for whatever that's worth, since mp doesn't seem to convert videos into something that the droid can play :(

Which brings me to another bitch-session, why can't they just make the phones play divx avi's and not some other format that you have to convert? I know the droid is powerful enough to do it, yet there's been no app capable of it out yet :(

They said during the press conference that the Droid would get the new software for the N1. There will be some android phones which don't have the hardware power to run the new system, but that doesn't apply to the Droid.
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THat's good news, it would be bad business to make the latest and greatest obsolete in 5 months.
 
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THat's good news, it would be bad business to make the latest and greatest obsolete in 5 months.
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The press conference speakers were very inclusive, acting like a team between the different hardware manufacturers and the google programmers.
Which brings me to another bitch-session, why can't they just make the phones play divx avi's and not some other format that you have to convert? I know the droid is powerful enough to do it, yet there's been no app capable of it out yet :(
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Until a few months ago, android has only been out for the afterthought T-mobile network, right? Give it some time, especially with the processing power and potential of the Droid & N1.

Programmers will definitely sprint to the google development world over Apple, both in principle and freedom.
 
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jwinslow;1636409; said:
I finally had time to spend 15 minutes on an Eris and that is one heck of a phone for $99. The HTC interface is better than the Droids, and I'm eager to try out the NexusOne in a few months when Verizon gets it (apparently you can't try out the Nexus one in person at a t-mobile store, other than a rep who owns one).
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I was wondering about that. If Google is going to sell the phone exclusively online, how do they expect people to try the phone before they buy? Or do they think people are going to rush out and get a phone without putting their hands on it?
 
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They brought up how people buy cameras online on the basis of reviews from dpreview.com and other sources. My guess is it's online online for t-mobile, but verizon will have them in their stores.
 
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