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Official Google Phone Coming in January 2010, Testing Now
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No, it makes perfect sense. It's like saying, "I shouldn't have to pay money to live." Or, "I shouldn't have to use my eyes to see."
LagunaSol
macrumors 601
Indeed. Apple has had a stranglehold on the PMP market with the iPod for years, but did they just put it on cruise control and coast? No. They keep making their product better and better, staying two steps ahead of the competition. They still make the best PMP on the planet in the iPod touch.
I think it was John Gruber that opined that the company working hardest on the iPhone killer is...Apple.
And I agree.
And here's hoping that Apple doesn't continue to limit themselves to a single "phone event" once a year (in June). That would be a mistake in my opinion.
miketcool
macrumors 6502a
Actually, there are a number of different UI's available, some being made by third party developers. The phone is being branded as open, so you are allowed to pick and choose the interface you like best and change it. Manufacturers like their own interfaces, because they feel they best match their hardware set, or further increases the strength with the specific handset.
I actually appreciate this process. I would be upset too if I had to pay for software updates on my G1. So far, the upgrades have all been free. I doubt it has had much effect on iPod Touch users, $4.95 or not.
Google is running an open source project. If you are going to make an OS compatible with many handsets, you have to take steps to make sure it all works right. A nice year long run up to an official Google phone has done well to benefit consumers, carriers and handset makers. Devs got to experience a live environment, Google got tons of feedback, and Android proved to be successful.
What consumer would trust a company that holds all the control over a device and has shown in the past to withhold upgrades in favor of drumming up interest in later models? The answer, ironically, is a lot of consumers would trust such a system. Cheers iPhone users.
LagunaSol
macrumors 601
Thanks for putting words in my mouth and misrepresenting my personal philosophy yet again. 🙄
cumanzor
macrumors 6502
I'd say your philosophy is an absolutist Apple rocks, MS sucks. Can't take you serious when you actually call people morons for using a system you don't like, like you did some days ago.
Maverick1337
macrumors 65816
No, his sentence is stating that the jailbreaking features should come stock. He shouldn't have to jailbreak/hack his phone to get simple editing features, they should already be implemented from the beginning.
LagunaSol
macrumors 601
You got the "MS sucks" part 100% right, but the "absolutist Apple rocks" part is way off. So you score 50%. That's an F where I come from. 😉
*LTD*
macrumors G4
Well, they do. The whole notion of an MS "fan" is a complete contradiction. Fans of what? Office? Windows (LOL)? Exchange? WGA? Songsmith? The activation process?
No, most of these lost souls are fans of hardware that have no choice but to turn to Winblows if they want to continue building and tweaking their systems and play games. So they're defending the only real choice open to them.
Oled
Zune HD and now this "real" android have OLED screens.
does this mean apple has to use OLED in next iphone?
everybody loves those screens, and they use less power. certainly we're getting OLED next time, right? right?!?!? 😀
(HD video would be awful sweet too, stevie.)
Zune HD and now this "real" android have OLED screens.
does this mean apple has to use OLED in next iphone?
everybody loves those screens, and they use less power. certainly we're getting OLED next time, right? right?!?!? 😀
(HD video would be awful sweet too, stevie.)
XNine
macrumors 68040
Lots of asinine comments in this one!
For one, this may or may not be the actual phone. HTC is reportedly building the Google Phone, at which point when it hits market, it will be branded "Google" Only. Thus, the phone is either a prototype, or it's not a pic of the actual phone as one is still not available.
Secondly, what's wrong with competition? Nothing. Anyone of you fanboys use Windows 7 yet? It's actually a damn good product. I still favor OS X, but Windows 7 has trumped Vista and XP by far and really does compete with OS X on many levels. Google providing a large platform for people is NOT A BAD THING. Sure, some phones have different firmwares, but you can blame that on the MFG of the phone itself. They choose with firmware to install upon release due to their manufacturing specs, hardware, and available support. Shame there's only 3 models of iPhone available, with only one firmware, and one ultra-imperialistic app-store and tie-in to itunes.
Third, Android is a mobile OS designed for mobile devices such as phones. Chrome (or Chromium) is the Google OS that will be featured in Netbooks come next yea (as well as their super-fast and lightweight browser for other OS's).
Google has provided as much innovation in the tech industry as Apple has in the last 10 years.
Now, run along and drink your koolaid.
For one, this may or may not be the actual phone. HTC is reportedly building the Google Phone, at which point when it hits market, it will be branded "Google" Only. Thus, the phone is either a prototype, or it's not a pic of the actual phone as one is still not available.
Secondly, what's wrong with competition? Nothing. Anyone of you fanboys use Windows 7 yet? It's actually a damn good product. I still favor OS X, but Windows 7 has trumped Vista and XP by far and really does compete with OS X on many levels. Google providing a large platform for people is NOT A BAD THING. Sure, some phones have different firmwares, but you can blame that on the MFG of the phone itself. They choose with firmware to install upon release due to their manufacturing specs, hardware, and available support. Shame there's only 3 models of iPhone available, with only one firmware, and one ultra-imperialistic app-store and tie-in to itunes.
Third, Android is a mobile OS designed for mobile devices such as phones. Chrome (or Chromium) is the Google OS that will be featured in Netbooks come next yea (as well as their super-fast and lightweight browser for other OS's).
Google has provided as much innovation in the tech industry as Apple has in the last 10 years.
Now, run along and drink your koolaid.
macduke
macrumors G5
I could see myself using a Google phone if:
1.) My 587 gazillion iPhone apps worked with it
2.) It ends up being sexy (the leaked pic is the HTC hardware it is based off of, not the final result)
3.) It was VOIP only, resulting in a bill less than $50 a month. However, I doubt VOIP would work well on EDGE in the country, where I need my cell phone for emergencies, which would require Verizon's service, which is a bit faster in the country
4.) If the UI was full multitouch and not crippled...and as intuitive as the iPhone
5.) If it gets a huge improvement in battery life compared to the iPhone
6.) If the web browser rocks as much as Mobile Safari
7.) If it brings enough innovation to the table to outweigh the remaining benefits of the iPhone
I doubt that it will be able to achieve enough of those things to bring me over, but I'm hopeful to see some of them to further push Apple along the path of innovation. If anyone does it, it will be Google. Even though their board members separated, with the good relationship they had going for years, one has to wonder if they are secretly plotting with each other to push everyone else out of the market. They are stronger together than apart. It doesn't make sense that they would just suddenly stop being friends because the government became suspicious.
Back to the iPhone...I fully expect iPhone OS 4.0 to really stack on the new features. I bet there will be many more crossovers from the desktop OS X, such as spaces or stacks. I'm also hopeful that there will be easier access to settings changes, like for jailbreak.
Seeing how push notifications haven't been as hugely successful as they might have hoped, and perhaps not as useful as imagined (although still handy in certain situations), I give the addition of background processes for 3rd party apps a green light, but the implementation would be similar to the "tabs" of mobile Safari, where you are limited to a certain number, probably three to five. I also wouldn't be surprised if there will be a similar interface for switching between active apps. Perhaps a three finger swipe down gesture (or similar) to bring down an application switcher. It would zoom out the current app, and to the sides would show other apps like Mobile Safari shows web pages. Swipe and tap to select and switch. It is certain that Apple has to be working on this problem, since it is seen as one of the major drawbacks of the device, and they are most likely rewriting their code to be optimized and save as much battery as possible. In addition, they are probably also looking into advanced battery tech and other power sipping hardware to help this process along.
I'm also hopeful for resolution independence, as the 480x320px screen on the iPhone is getting a bit long in the tooth compared to newer devices. Even though it blew me away in 2007, the text could still be a bit crisper, especially when using Mobile Safari on non-iPhone formatted pages. Any newer, higher resolution device would have to be compatible with the 100,000+ apps in the App Store. From what I remember, Apple is rumored to be bringing this resolution independence tech to Snow Leopard's successor, most likely utilizing some sort of vector graphics system. This would allow easy scaling between devices, and would be necessary for the success of newer devices, because lets face it, the iPhone won't have a 480x320px screen forever.
So to wrap up, the Google phone will probably be pretty awesome, and shut down the likes of what is left of the Palm Pre and even the 3rd party Android customers like the DROID, but with the momentum of both the Apple and Google in this space, I see room for both to rise and conquer. Eventually they will be forced to compete in a more direct fashion, but I'm not going to count Apple out on this one. Any company that can release a game changer like the iPhone has to have some really crazy, out there, futuristic magical stuff going on in their labs, on both the software and hardware sides, and both companies have billions of dollars that they can throw at R&D. If anything, this is going to be a really fun saga to watch over the coming years, and in the long run we all will benefit from two really great companies making really great products.
There really is no downside to this, aside from the wireless companies that we'll still have to deal with.
1.) My 587 gazillion iPhone apps worked with it
2.) It ends up being sexy (the leaked pic is the HTC hardware it is based off of, not the final result)
3.) It was VOIP only, resulting in a bill less than $50 a month. However, I doubt VOIP would work well on EDGE in the country, where I need my cell phone for emergencies, which would require Verizon's service, which is a bit faster in the country
4.) If the UI was full multitouch and not crippled...and as intuitive as the iPhone
5.) If it gets a huge improvement in battery life compared to the iPhone
6.) If the web browser rocks as much as Mobile Safari
7.) If it brings enough innovation to the table to outweigh the remaining benefits of the iPhone
I doubt that it will be able to achieve enough of those things to bring me over, but I'm hopeful to see some of them to further push Apple along the path of innovation. If anyone does it, it will be Google. Even though their board members separated, with the good relationship they had going for years, one has to wonder if they are secretly plotting with each other to push everyone else out of the market. They are stronger together than apart. It doesn't make sense that they would just suddenly stop being friends because the government became suspicious.
Back to the iPhone...I fully expect iPhone OS 4.0 to really stack on the new features. I bet there will be many more crossovers from the desktop OS X, such as spaces or stacks. I'm also hopeful that there will be easier access to settings changes, like for jailbreak.
Seeing how push notifications haven't been as hugely successful as they might have hoped, and perhaps not as useful as imagined (although still handy in certain situations), I give the addition of background processes for 3rd party apps a green light, but the implementation would be similar to the "tabs" of mobile Safari, where you are limited to a certain number, probably three to five. I also wouldn't be surprised if there will be a similar interface for switching between active apps. Perhaps a three finger swipe down gesture (or similar) to bring down an application switcher. It would zoom out the current app, and to the sides would show other apps like Mobile Safari shows web pages. Swipe and tap to select and switch. It is certain that Apple has to be working on this problem, since it is seen as one of the major drawbacks of the device, and they are most likely rewriting their code to be optimized and save as much battery as possible. In addition, they are probably also looking into advanced battery tech and other power sipping hardware to help this process along.
I'm also hopeful for resolution independence, as the 480x320px screen on the iPhone is getting a bit long in the tooth compared to newer devices. Even though it blew me away in 2007, the text could still be a bit crisper, especially when using Mobile Safari on non-iPhone formatted pages. Any newer, higher resolution device would have to be compatible with the 100,000+ apps in the App Store. From what I remember, Apple is rumored to be bringing this resolution independence tech to Snow Leopard's successor, most likely utilizing some sort of vector graphics system. This would allow easy scaling between devices, and would be necessary for the success of newer devices, because lets face it, the iPhone won't have a 480x320px screen forever.
So to wrap up, the Google phone will probably be pretty awesome, and shut down the likes of what is left of the Palm Pre and even the 3rd party Android customers like the DROID, but with the momentum of both the Apple and Google in this space, I see room for both to rise and conquer. Eventually they will be forced to compete in a more direct fashion, but I'm not going to count Apple out on this one. Any company that can release a game changer like the iPhone has to have some really crazy, out there, futuristic magical stuff going on in their labs, on both the software and hardware sides, and both companies have billions of dollars that they can throw at R&D. If anything, this is going to be a really fun saga to watch over the coming years, and in the long run we all will benefit from two really great companies making really great products.
There really is no downside to this, aside from the wireless companies that we'll still have to deal with.
DMann
macrumors 601
With a track record such as this, one can only admire the undeniably high standards they consistently adhere to in their products:
SeaFox
macrumors 68030
ROFL to this reply.
I've been a T-Mobile subscriber for eight years, and I can count one one hand the number of times I've had a call get randomly dropped on the network (not counting when I was in a very poor signal area), and T-Mobile has been consistently voted better in customer service than AT&T in surveys, even before the iPhone fiasco.
Notable that is Google having absolute control and phone being sold unlocked from the get-go. Can you say "How the iPhone should have been sold from the very beginning?" 🙄
There's nothing wrong with T-Mobile, had it for 10 years long before it was called "T-Mobile" and their GSM EDGE network isn't that bad as people tend to think. Cheaper plans doesn't necessarily mean poor service. They now have a great range of phones to choose from and I'm glad they have 3G now.
Back on topic, as people said already on this thread, competition is what drives businesses to make money. Imagine a world where there was no competition and everyone had the same device or wore the same clothing? Pretty boring huh?
The iPhone truly revolutionized the mobile world, and just like everyone else I anticipate the 4th coming of the iPhone. I anxiously wait to see Apple's response to the influx of Android powered phones.
Back on topic, as people said already on this thread, competition is what drives businesses to make money. Imagine a world where there was no competition and everyone had the same device or wore the same clothing? Pretty boring huh?
The iPhone truly revolutionized the mobile world, and just like everyone else I anticipate the 4th coming of the iPhone. I anxiously wait to see Apple's response to the influx of Android powered phones.
Disagree - I've just moved to a 3GS and the difference between that and my old 3G is tremendous - just the speed bump alone was worth it in my opinion as the 3GS is a joy to use.
Also they did improve the camera (3 megapixel, auto focus, video recording & editing, better lowlight performance) - my iPhone takes much better pictures then say my wife's Samsung Soul with it's 5 or 6 megapixel camera - just having more specs on paper does not mean the actual quality is better.
keenan wolf
macrumors 6502
I was on google mobiles blog reading the post about a mobile device they have been testing. i notice that in the top of the blog there is a phone that looks a lot like the passion that was pictured in the front page article except black, im pretty sure that its not another Android phone like the eris or the hero or the magic.
heres the whole image
so what do you think?
heres the whole image
so what do you think?
How is it unintentional if they plan on making games in house by hiring a game developer? Unintentional is staying with the current flow and just allow the third party developers provide whatever gaming comes along. I don't know what you see when you watch their TV adds or view one of their five 4 story billboards, but I see a device, playing a game in someone hands. Just because they don't have a itouch vs PSP or a itouch vs DS commercial does not negate the fact they promoting the itouch as a handheld gaming device also. I don't know, don't remember but in the 90s did Apple have PC vs Mac commercials? Things change and so does Apple.
Quote:
Originally Posted by *LTD*
Well, they do. The whole notion of an MS "fan" is a complete contradiction. Fans of what? Office? Windows (LOL)? Exchange? WGA? Songsmith? The activation process?
With a track record such as this, one can only admire the undeniably high standards they consistently adhere to in their products:
Yes Apple has high standards, but Windows runs the world. Quality and User experience are good things to focus on as Apple does, but Windows right now is not going anywhere. Corps need an OS that can be licensed on whatever PC they choose to purchase. Does Apple allow this?
Quote:
Originally Posted by cumanzor
I'd say your philosophy is an absolutist Apple rocks, MS sucks.
You got the "MS sucks" part 100% right, but the "absolutist Apple rocks" part is way off. So you score 50%. That's an F where I come from.
Apparently it does not suck enough as their user base is greater than Apple and will continue to be so as Apple is not a viable option for Corps who have a large user base. Somehow with their "inferior" product users are still able to find the internet and send and receive email, among other things. Apple and Macs may be the Ferraris, Maybacks, Porsche's etc. of the computing world, but a Ford still gets you from point A to point B. It would seem more people opt for the Ford as Apple may be out of their reach or does not make economical sense for their business model.
Fanboys
No, there is nothing wrong with being opinionated - nor is there anything wrong with being excited over a new product. But these "fanboys", perhaps mostly on less responsible forums than this (The Kooks at MDN come to mind), take their devotion to an almost religious level. Apple can do no wrong, every other corporation in the world who produces a product that remotely competes with Apple is irrelevant to the fanboys and they don't understand why the rest of the world can't see what is clear to them. They congratulate themselves on understanding the world in a way others (who have usually excelled them) do not. They feel they finally "fit in" somewhere.
They learn a language and then repeat words and phrases from Apple Special events. They all "Skate to where the puck is going to be".... Their products are "Elegant", "sexy", and look "just gorgeous" . Sometimes they look "delicious" ... "Oh my God, It's not OS Ex you idiot, it's pronounced 10!! You idiot, Oh My GOD!!!"......
All other products are "crappy", "junky" and "clunky". Windows users are all "sufferers" and "idiots" whose PC's do nothing but crash, bluescreen, and get viruses. I.T. professionals are part of a conspiracy because if a corporation switches to Macs, they will be out of a job (which makes me wonder if Fanboys even understand exactly what an I.T. department does).. Of course, Apple is about to take over the entire PC world and Microsoft and Ballmar are "toast". I'm not sure what this type of thinking is based in, but it's not based on reality...
I'm just as passionate about my Apple gear as the next guy (I'm up to 4 iPhones, 5 if you could the one on my account for my son) but I don't go out of my way to belittle everything (and everyone who uses a product) that is NOT Apple - and my stuff does give me headaches at times (My new Mini has crashed more in 6 months than all the other Macs I have ever owned combined)....
So you see my friend, fanboyism is indeed a disease. It happens when an Apple user becomes so blinded by the Apple hype that they can't see the value of other fine products not produced by our favorite fruit company...
No, there is nothing wrong with being opinionated - nor is there anything wrong with being excited over a new product. But these "fanboys", perhaps mostly on less responsible forums than this (The Kooks at MDN come to mind), take their devotion to an almost religious level. Apple can do no wrong, every other corporation in the world who produces a product that remotely competes with Apple is irrelevant to the fanboys and they don't understand why the rest of the world can't see what is clear to them. They congratulate themselves on understanding the world in a way others (who have usually excelled them) do not. They feel they finally "fit in" somewhere.
They learn a language and then repeat words and phrases from Apple Special events. They all "Skate to where the puck is going to be".... Their products are "Elegant", "sexy", and look "just gorgeous" . Sometimes they look "delicious" ... "Oh my God, It's not OS Ex you idiot, it's pronounced 10!! You idiot, Oh My GOD!!!"......
All other products are "crappy", "junky" and "clunky". Windows users are all "sufferers" and "idiots" whose PC's do nothing but crash, bluescreen, and get viruses. I.T. professionals are part of a conspiracy because if a corporation switches to Macs, they will be out of a job (which makes me wonder if Fanboys even understand exactly what an I.T. department does).. Of course, Apple is about to take over the entire PC world and Microsoft and Ballmar are "toast". I'm not sure what this type of thinking is based in, but it's not based on reality...
I'm just as passionate about my Apple gear as the next guy (I'm up to 4 iPhones, 5 if you could the one on my account for my son) but I don't go out of my way to belittle everything (and everyone who uses a product) that is NOT Apple - and my stuff does give me headaches at times (My new Mini has crashed more in 6 months than all the other Macs I have ever owned combined)....
So you see my friend, fanboyism is indeed a disease. It happens when an Apple user becomes so blinded by the Apple hype that they can't see the value of other fine products not produced by our favorite fruit company...
mabaker
macrumors 65816
I personally find the iPhone clunky and in 2010 Steve will surely get multiple seizures IF he can't make it as sexy and thin as the iPod Touch. 😀
I may be interested in the Google phone indeed but I am not holding my breath. I can already say that Google is borrowing heavily from Apple in terms of design - just look at the Chrome browser.😎
I may be interested in the Google phone indeed but I am not holding my breath. I can already say that Google is borrowing heavily from Apple in terms of design - just look at the Chrome browser.😎