Google Launches Nexus One: T-Mobile Plan Available Now, Verizon and Vodafone Coming Soon

[G58]

What's in a name?

Indeed. The Force is strong with this one.

What's in a name?

Well, the future of a product [a small thing] but little else!

Quite perceptive you are, G!

Their sterile approach would seem to allow Google to 'smear the bulls-eye,' cover all bases - play it sci-fi, futuristic, serious, and, at the same time, hip, stylish, and trend-setting.

'Superphone' - complete with SIRIUS XM, built-in TASER, HD Media Projector, and Satellite Chips for Globalstar and Iridium Services. Must be impressive.

Anything for attention and hype is the name-of-the-game here, whether it be congruous, or not.

It seems that the art of advertising has been compromised, in this respect, as the DROID ads are even less to be desired.

 

[G58]

Red...

Having sat here for all of three minuted trying to compose a witty response to your proposition, that "If they wore RED lab coats, it would be a different story." without a single witticism jumping into my head.

My difficulty is in imagining red lab coats. White lab coats have a language all of their own. One imagines that not even Communist Russia or China would subvert that language - even to make a statement.

So, whilst I agree, it would indeed be a different story, I'm at a total loss to imagine how it would read.

At a Mac Expo in London some years ago, I met a gorgeous girl in a T-shirt with an iPod in an arm band. I will remember her and smile until the day I die. She could have sold me anything. She probably did!

If they wore RED lab coats, it would be a different story.

 

[G58]

Have you been paying attention?

Q: What was the name of the spaceship Segey Brin and Larry Page used to escape reality, sorry, take over the airwaves?
A: The Nexus One

Q: What was the software that powered the Nexus One?
A: A special version of Android.

Q: What was different about this 'special' version?
A: Um, er... not a lot really, oh, animated wallpaper??

Q: What was the mission of the Nexus One?
A: To destroy the alliance with the Android Federation.

Q: When did the Nexus One crash.
A: This is a trick question, it never really took off!

Q: Why was that?
A: Although it was designed to appeal to techies, even they saw through the blandness of the feature set and shallowness of Google's marketing plan and were ultimately left feeling betrayed.

Q: What else was wrong with the Nexus One?
A: That's easy, no light saber. Major fail.

Make a date with your future selves and come back here in 12 months time. In a way I hope this is far too cynical and pessimistic a take on this matter. But something tells me it's not.

 

[distortedloop]

I'm not as worried about a blatant betrayal as I am about them being able to leverage this information to wrest control of any information or media-related product they want. They'll smile and pat you on the back and tell you it's all part of "free and open information," but at some point they're going to start acting like Microsoft and start bulldozing anyone who obstructs their business.

Your scenario is far more likely than mine, but the consequences of mine can be much more damaging to me as an individual and are therefore of much greater concern to me. Your point is taken, though.

Now here's the real intrusion we're going to see very soon when all these Android phones are ubiquitous: think Minority report.

You're walking around the mall with your location-aware, RFID-enabled, Google powered, know all your interests and secrets phone, and get bombarded with "targeted ads" both on your phone, and on storefront displays as you walk by. Ugh! What a nightmare.

Indeed. I find their software in general to be extremely amateurish and raw. They aren't great consumer software designers by any means. Even Microsoft makes better "feeling" software than Google.

Exactly. And since this is a Mac oriented forum I am surprised you didn't point out that that is Apple's strong suit in much of this debate. People like the feel of their Apple products. Elegant may be over used, but it is the most common word used by most anyone other than the "haters" who throw out the word "simplistic". (I think it's elegantly simple, so both sides are corect.

Pick a product, any product that Google does that has a competitor, and you'll find much nicer UIs than Google, and often better functionality.

I'm surprised anyone is still reading this thread, it's pretty much been beaten to death.

 

[LagunaSol]

Now here's the real intrusion we're going to see very soon when all these Android phones are ubiquitous: think Minority report.

You're walking around the mall with your location-aware, RFID-enabled, Google powered, know all your interests and secrets phone, and get bombarded with "targeted ads" both on your phone, and on storefront displays as you walk by. Ugh! What a nightmare.

Indeed. In most dark futuristic sci-fi films, advertising has completely taken over society. Our natural reaction is that of horror. Yet here we are, marching happily down the path to that very future, and Google is leading the way. Yikes.

Is "free" really worth submitting ourselves to endless commercial messages? Is "free" really worth allowing marketers to know every minute detail of our lives?

I hope not.

 

[kdarling]

A lot depends on if you can turn the ads off or not.

It could be handy to receive targeted discount coupons while walking through a mall in say, a "I'm shopping for clothes today, give me info" mode that I can enable or disable, perhaps with levels of intrusion.

And yes, I should be able to turn on/off whether my shopping is stored somewhere. The trouble is, you'd have to find some company's software that didn't depend on that trade-of for its revenue.

It's difficult to have both ease and privacy. For example, Apple knows everything about what music and apps we like, due to their iTunes portal, which most people would say is critical to Apple's success.

 

[maximart4u]

looks good, but no iphone killer!

 

[Internaut]

It looks like a lovely phone to buy SIM free so I can use a local SIM when on my business trips and holidays. Should Apple be worried about this? No, but they should not be complacent either. Google's greatest strength lies in its ability to render everyone else irrelevant (not to mention the magical ability to get away with breaking copyright laws) and we may all end up regretting that a few months down the line.

As for the immediate threat? Your competitor comes out with a flash new phone with a nicer screen and lots of eye candy? Well there's an App for that (several of them).

 

[LagunaSol]

The trouble is, you'd have to find some company's software that didn't depend on that trade-of for its revenue.

The trouble is, Google depends solely on advertising for its revenue.

 

[str1f3]

The trouble is, Google depends solely on advertising for its revenue.

That is Google's strength. All websites need to ads to earn revenues. If Android fails, it won't really hurt Google. Apple, on the other hand, is in the toughest position of the big 3 including MS. Since Apple holds a small desktop market share while catering towards the higher end of the market, they have to innovate to be successful. This is why I don't have a problem with Apple being so secretive.

MS and Google can rely on others to prop them up. Apple doesn't have that luxury though the advantage of making their own hardware and software allows them to make better products.

 

[LagunaSol]

Since Apple holds a small desktop market share while catering towards the higher end of the market, they have to innovate to be successful.

Thank heavens someone has to innovate to survive, because Acme Technology Inc., er, Microsoft certainly doesn't.

 

[speedbird]

Based on your logic, we should all switch to Alienware PCs because compared to any Apple product, the "hardware is simply awesome." Let us know when you run out and switch. ;-)

The fact that you're a Mac user shows it's not just about hardware - if it was you wouldn't be a Mac user. It's about good hardware with an awesome OS. From what I've seen and read, Android has been far from awesome so far. 2.1 may be different.

As far as app developing goes, you don't hear about people making a fortune in the Android app market...but there are people getting rich off the iTunes app store, if reports are to be believed, maybe they're just more vocal about it than Android developers...?

Nice try, I actually like to read exactly where I mention "switching" to *anything*, twisting one's comments is frankly (an attempt of) a cheap shot. Why did I "switch" to Android for Mobile development in the first place? - well, one of the many reasons is that I truly support open source, and the Android Market allows the distribution model in a maner which is way less intrusive than the apple store, the Nexus One is simple more icing on my "cake", simple as that.

Also not looking for a quick get-rich model either, I enjoy developing, money comes along with it. Now I'd like to see how many people are getting rich on the App Store, you know the %, out of the how many apps we now have, "hundreds of thousands", in contrast, there is not even a year since the Android Market came up in its current incarnation and there is already what, 12% of the apps the app store has?

Now I don't plan to switch to Alienware anytime soon as you suggest, however, I plan to upgrade my iMac and MacPro as soon as hardware and software upgrades come from apple, see the difference?

 

[DMann]

Thank heavens someone has to innovate to survive, because Acme Technology Inc., er, Microsoft certainly doesn't.

Why would they, since they've been relying on Apple, and others, for their R&D, from day one?

 

[distortedloop]

LTD, my question to you is: Have you used an android phone before?, but before you respond, let me ask you this instead: Have you ever *really* used an android phone before?.. for more than 5 minutes, you know.. like in real life?, I am really getting tired of trying to read along the many excellent posters' comments when suddenly one of your trolling comments come along, I get it, you love apple, but guess what, so Do I, in fact, I've used apple for at least 15+ years now and I am very happy with that choice, now, as a developer, I chose the android platform for my "mobile" apps and I couldn't be happier.. The Nexus One *is* a real competitor to the iPhone (that is a **good** thing), the Nexus' Hardware is simply awesome whether you want to believe it or not, you really need to look at things with a clear head bro, you are just making a fool of yourself otherwise..

Based on your warped logic quoted above, the iPhone then has "incomplete photography technology" as it does not contain a flash (and flash technology was available when the 3Gs came along), does that sound like a LAME comment on me?, thanks, it *is* lame, same as your other comments sheesh..

Nice try, I actually like to read exactly where I mention "switching" to *anything*, twisting one's comments is frankly (an attempt of) a cheap shot. Why did I "switch" to Android for Mobile development in the first place? - well, one of the many reasons is that I truly support open source, and the Android Market allows the distribution model in a maner which is way less intrusive than the apple store, the Nexus One is simple more icing on my "cake", simple as that.

Also not looking for a quick get-rich model either, I enjoy developing, money comes along with it. Now I'd like to see how many people are getting rich on the App Store, you know the %, out of the how many apps we now have, "hundreds of thousands", in contrast, there is not even a year since the Android Market came up in its current incarnation and there is already what, 12% of the apps the app store has?

Now I don't plan to switch to Alienware anytime soon as you suggest, however, I plan to upgrade my iMac and MacPro as soon as hardware and software upgrades come from apple, see the difference?

Reference the bolded (by me) parts above.

Perhaps I misinterpreted your meaning and the context of your first post, which was one of many that seemed to be advocating a switch to the N1 culminating with the logic that whether LTD wanted to admit it or not, the N1 was *awesome* hardware, which was one of your many reasons to advocate switching, but that's far different from"(an attempt of) a cheap shot."

You seem a bit defensive, but that's the attitude of most fanboys, regardless of whatever product their fanboying for. Lighten up, it wasn't meant to be a personal attack. At any rate, I stand corrected, as it appears you weren't advocating a switch, only stating that the N1 was a respectable competitor to the iPhone.

I actually happen to agree with you in many regards.

The N1 looks to be some awesome hardware, and I've been wavering on test driving one for several days. The threads here and in Apple Insider and MacRumor are starting to blend in my mind, there have been so many posts, but I thought I've made that pretty clear here that I was salivating over the N1 hardware and contemplating a 30 day test drive.

I can't quite pull the trigger, though. Big concerns with Google and privacy. Also not sure that despite the better hardware, you're getting anything that actually runs better than the iPhone 3G (jailbroken).

The number of apps in either market place argument is getting pretty tiresome. You reach a point where the difference between 5 fart apps or tip calculators and 500 is just annoying, especially when you don't want any fart app at all. Same with tip calculators, web browsers, rss readers, etc, etc.

It's funny that on one hand Android advocates argue the number of apps doesn't matter that much, but then on the other they tout how many apps they've gotten in their first year. Like I said, it's tiresome, but since you brought up, let's look at the situation:

Apple's App Store opened in July 2008, Android Market opened in October 2008. With only 4 months lead over Android, Apple has 5 TIMES AS MANY apps? Wow, that speaks volumes in terms of interest and demand, no matter how much we want to dismiss the fact. The App Store is a marketing and consumer phenomenon, the Android Market is not. With those numbers you can't argue otherwise. If the Android Market hits 100,000 apps and 3-billion downloads of apps in the next three to four months, let me know. Granted, Apple had some pent up demand since the iPhone had been around for a year with no apps outside of the jailbreak community, but that's because the iPhone, even without 3rd party apps was a compelling piece of hardware and software - Android phones aren't so compelling (yet), if they were, there'd be a lot more of them out there already.

The Droid and Eris and Nexus One are starting to change that, but it only took Google and the Open Handset Alliance 18+ months to get there.

I'm curious, does Android have a place I can, without owning an Android phone, goto to see if the Android Market has apps I WANT TO USE? Most reviews I've seen/read over the last few days suggest that there's a dearth of quality apps on the Android Market. There are plenty of places for me to go to review iPhone apps. Some quick and lazy Google searching for Android hasn't revealed anything that gives me even a hint of what the Android Market carries. I'd be more motivated to search harder if I actually had an Android phone.

Re: open source. I think the idea of open source is great, but also highly overrated, and it fails to deliver in most cases. I don't have a bunch of open source software on my Mac because most of it just can't match the quality, in terms of usage or support, of a quality app from a paid developer. There are exceptions, of course. Firefox, the flagship of open source software, sucks in my opinion. Name some must have open source software beyond maybe VLC and Handbrake. (Webkit doesn't count - LOL).

As a developer who "truly support(s) open source", tell me, are your Android apps open source? Just curious. At any rate, let me know what app you have on the Android Market, and if I actually grab an N1 in the coming weeks, I'd love to check it out.

As far as the number of App Store developers getting rich, I don't know. I didn't throw out a number, just the fact that we know there are some of them making 7-digits, and enough of them making big money to get CNBC's attention to make an hour long "special" about the phenomena. Whatever the count of the successful ones are, there's an awful lot of money being made by people in the App Store, and that's going to continue to attract developers to that platform, at least until they get burned by Apple. I haven't heard of a single Android Market developer making that kind of news, which says something as well, like it or not. Yes, for you it's not about money, it's about the enjoyment of developing, but it's an interesting point of information never-the-less!

Anyways, I've broken a major rule of forum posting - this post is way too long, and most won't read it for its length, and now someone is going to over quote it and pick it apart paragraph by paragraph. I'll repeat what I said somewhere around post #650 here...I'm surprised anyone is still reading this thread, it's really been beaten to death.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

With only 4 months lead over Android, Apple has 5 TIMES AS MANY apps?

I know right. Android will fall flat on its face without 3,000 fart apps. Noobs at google... what were they thinking?

 

[ChazUK]

Reference the bolded (by me) parts above.
I'm curious, does Android have a place I can, without owning an Android phone, goto to see if the Android Market has apps I WANT TO USE? Most reviews I've seen/read over the last few days suggest that there's a dearth of quality apps on the Android Market. There are plenty of places for me to go to review iPhone apps. Some quick and lazy Google searching for Android hasn't revealed anything that gives me even a hint of what the Android Market carries. I'd be more motivated to search harder if I actually had an Android phone.

This is a difficult one. Comparing Android apps to iPhone apps it depends on the functions it benefits from, for example, a few superior Android apps IMO:

Last.fm/spotify/Pandrora - All superior on Android due to multitasking. Running these apps on an iPhone leaves you with no ability to use any other functions whilst it is open. No browsing and streaming, no realtime scrobbling of what music you're playing. No quickly answering that SMS you just received without closing the app and replying. Hopefully the next update will give some kind of multitasking to alleviate this issue

AndFTP - As Android has full access to the SD card filesystem, you can upload and download files at will to any FTP source. I have ANDftp installed on my Hero and can upload or download pictures, music, video and documents at will to my iMac as I have it set up with FTP access.

Gensoid/NESoid/SNESoid (et al) Emulators - Apple just wouldn't allow you to use Emulators with unauthorized roms so naturally, classic machine Emulation is better on Android and with the hardware in the Droid/Nexus One, the older generation of consoles will perform better than they ever have. Jailbreaking solves the emulator problem but there is a lot of negativity (especially on these forums) about jailbroken iPhones.

Things that are better on the iPhone? Stuff that doesn't need multitasking to function better and games. As Android hasn't supported 3d hardware acceleration as well as Android 2.1 does now, the games have been lacking.

What the iPhone does, it does well and if you are as happy as you seem to bewith your 3GS, why bother switching? You also have issues with Google so not bothering with Android is a no-brainer IMO.

I moved away from iPhone OS as I do multitask on my devices (streaming music + browsing) and have been doing so since my first Symbian smartphone, many moons ago.

We haven't fully seen what the Nexus One is capable of yet so I'm looking forward to getting one and seeing where it goes.

 

[distortedloop]

I know right. Android will fall flat on its face without 3,000 fart apps. Noobs at google... what were they thinking?

Did I say, or even suggest that? I was only pointing out that Android advocates are quick to point out that number of apps in the App Store is irrelevant, and then they turn right around and say how many apps are in the Market. If you're going to talk numbers, you have to acknowledge that the App Store is an unparalleled success.

In fact, I specifically said: "The number of apps in either market place argument is getting pretty tiresome. You reach a point where the difference between 5 fart apps or tip calculators and 500 is just annoying, especially when you don't want any fart app at all. Same with tip calculators, web browsers, rss readers, etc, etc", which is why the numbers game gets tedious.

This is a difficult one. Comparing Android apps to iPhone apps it depends on the functions it benefits from, for example, a few superior Android apps IMO:

Thanks for your response. I clipped it all out to save space. Most of the issues about multitasking and disk address don't exist if you've jailbroken your phone, like I have. Sadly, while extremely easy for devices sold up until last October, it's not such a good thing for newer iPhones.

I routinely background (aka multitask) things like Pandora, iHeartRadio, and multiple apps with Backgrounder and ProSwitcher from Cydia. Kind of like you have to root Android for some features, same with the iPhone.

Additionally, there are cheap apps, and I think a free one, for the Mac that give you disk access to even unjailbroken iPhones. PhoneView is one I use ($20).

Why am I interested in switching despite being happy with the iPhone? Because I am like an ADD kid who can't keep his focus! LOL. I love tech, and gadgets, and variety. The Nexus One is the first interesting Android device (IMHO) to come along, and right at the time when the iPhone is starting to bore me a bit.

I'm trying to be open minded, and not a total fanboy for Apple, or a total naysayer for Google. I hope that comes across in my posts. I want both platforms to be successful. Like Rosenberg posted on the Google blog a couple of weeks ago, if Google can move the entire market forward, everyone wins.

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.5; en-us; Archos5 Build/CUPCAKE) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)

No probs distortedloop.

I'm terrible with mobile phones and have spent a fortune swapping models. The Nexus looks great but aren't you curious what Apple have up their sleeves? You may move to Android and love it but if you're any kind of gamer I'd stay stick with the 3gs and see what the developers do with the nexus's power.

You haven't come across as a fanboy at all. I was cautious jumping from my 3g to the Hero and luckyly for me (and HTC, Google and Archos) the jump to Android was the right thing for my needs.

Are you in the U.S as getting the nexus one will mean a switch from AT&T unless you wanted to live on an Edge connection with AT&T?

 

[gpatrick15]

I hope it's not the case, because that would mean the iPhone is not a success, since it doesn't have the largest percentage of deployment either.

Not to mention last I checked, iTunes was not the only software that supported syncing it's media library to some devices.

I was just about to mention that Songbird syncs android devices. I have that on my Mac and it's pretty much on par with or better than iTunes. And another thing, the iPhone syncs with iTunes, which is a nifty feature for sure. But when i had my G1 (replaced it with a 9700, soon to be replaced with the Nexus One) it syncs wirelessly with GMail and GCal, as well as all of my contacts. And it updates OTA. So the only thing that iTunes syncing has over Android's syncing solution is that it syncs music too, which can be rectified using Songbird on the mac.

 

[ChazUK]

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I never knew about Songbird syncing to Android devices on the mac. I'll have to give it a try on the Hero and if it works well I'll use it with the N1 when they arrive in the UK. Thanks!

 

[gpatrick15]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.6; en-us; Archos5 Build/Donut) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)

I never knew about Songbird syncing to Android devices on the mac. I'll have to give it a try on the Hero and if it works well I'll use it with the N1 when they arrive in the UK. Thanks!

When I went to download it a few weeks ago they had a droid listed as a compatible device, just as it had a PSP and some other devices, the Hero among them. Its at this link http://getsongbird.com/gadgets/index.php

 

[ChazUK]

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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.6; en-us; Archos5 Build/Donut) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)

I never knew about Songbird syncing to Android devices on the mac. I'll have to give it a try on the Hero and if it works well I'll use it with the N1 when they arrive in the UK. Thanks!

When I went to download it a few weeks ago they had a droid listed as a compatible device, just as it had a PSP and some other devices, the Hero among them. Its at this link http://getsongbird.com/gadgets/index.php

Lovely. Thanks!

 

[gpatrick15]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.6; en-us; Archos5 Build/Donut) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)



Lovely. Thanks!

No problem. I'm beginning to start use Songbird instead of iTunes. Not that theres anything wrong with iTunes though.

Interesting tidbit about Macrumors ads: I think it's very ironic that at the bottom of the page, as well as on a few other pages on here I've seen quite a few Nexus One ad's.

 

[distortedloop]

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The Nexus looks great but aren't you curious what Apple have up their sleeves?
...
Are you in the U.S as getting the nexus one will mean a switch from AT&T unless you wanted to live on an Edge connection with AT&T?

Oh yes, I am very curious about Apple's response to this! Hopefully we'll see what they have up their sleeve at the end of the month, but certainly no new hardware on the phone front from them until the summer. It's kind of a no-win situation for them at this point. If they release iPhone 4 now, just 6-7 months after iPhone 3G, imagine the howls of protests from people who snatched up the 3G and aren't even halfway into their contract of two years. The sting of an upgrade is a bit less after a year. On the other hand, they need to get something more compelling than the current 3G and 3.x OS out there to keep guys like me interested in the iPhone platform rather than moving over to Android's starting-to-look-sweet hardware offerings.

I was just about to mention that Songbird syncs android devices. I have that on my Mac and it's pretty much on par with or better than iTunes. And another thing, the iPhone syncs with iTunes, which is a nifty feature for sure. But when i had my G1 (replaced it with a 9700, soon to be replaced with the Nexus One) it syncs wirelessly with GMail and GCal, as well as all of my contacts. And it updates OTA. So the only thing that iTunes syncing has over Android's syncing solution is that it syncs music too, which can be rectified using Songbird on the mac.

I'm going to check out Songbird, thanks for mentioning it.

There was another application I saw mentioned in the thread, or on another forum that was used to sync iTunes music to any USB device...I'll have to try to find that one again.

 

[distortedloop]

I'm not a normal reader of Boy Genius Report, but I know it's a respected site by many. David Pogue linked this blog post of BGR's, which really slams the Android OS and Android Market.

I have to admit, reading that seemed to ring true, and really threw a damper on my enthusiasm for checking out a Nexus One for the time being.

Here's the post: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/01/09/google-android-personal-thoughts/

Standout points were the "feel" of Android's weren't attachment-inducing, there are no apps in the Market that hold up to same apps in App Store, the OS doesn't have regularity in icon sizes and touch area, and that Android had that same throw the beta out to the public and then move on to the next project feel that is typical of Google offerings. The most damning comments in the article: "But in the end, I found that the lack of any meaningful applications for Android really made it a no go from the beginning. I’m talking about quality — re-read the word quality — applications, here." Ouch.

But read the whole article, my 100 word standouts are sure to not do it justice.