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Google Android Ice Cream Sandwich Event on 19th October


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Old 19-10-2011, 11:48
Roush
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The device is more about ICS which is a significant upgrade to Android. It blows the 4S away anyway, and the iPhone still doesn't have features like NFC and face recognition, and now the GN has a resolution that rivals the Retina display, except it's much bigger...
I'm not so sure about that. iOS has face recognition APIs for developers to use if they want. Apple use it themselves in the camera app to optimise the auto exposure calculations.

Face based unlocking is a gimmick of the highest order, providing almost no security. It's been widely proven that without stereoscopic cameras providing depth perception these systems can be defeated simply by holding a photo up to the camera.

http://www.internetnews.com/security...+Black+Hat.htm

And as for the display, while it's clearly impressive the choice of words was telling. They only said the display was superior to other displays of 4 inches and above. It's clear their displays, although very good, aren't a true competitor to the retina display yet in terms of image quality. No doubt they'll get there soon though.
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Old 19-10-2011, 11:51
Zack06
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There was nothing there that i would place much value in. Yes, next to each other, prime beats s2. It's a comparable upgrade to going from 4 to 4s, so I won't be rushing to the shops. Ics is nice, but much of the new functionality is already available in 3rd party apps. The demo showed exactly why face recognition is a bad idea, and whilst beam is cool it can be replicated elsewhere. Of course, id prefer it to a 4s, that goes without saying, but it's only a step forward rather than a leap.
What else can they really do at this point? Since its launch the iPhone has never leaped forward, and the Nexus phones have never leaped forward either...despite it being the first device with a 1GHz processor and noise cancelling mics the Nexus One didn't bring anything new to the table, the Nexus S was worse...but the GN has at least introduced some tech that isn't available on any other phone for now..

The screen resolution sounds insane, the ppi is only a bit less except that its on a 4.65" instead of 3.5" which makes it all the more awesome..

I do think the main attraction is Ice Cream Sandwich...the UI looks stunning and nothing like the Android people are used to. They will attract a lot of new consumers with this OS, it looks cleaner and more put together than Android ever has done.
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Old 19-10-2011, 11:52
neo_wales
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I must admit, I like the look of it. Lets see what the fan boys have to say lol.
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Old 19-10-2011, 11:54
Zack06
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I'm not so sure about that. iOS has face recognition APIs for developers to use if they want.

Face based unlocking is a gimmick of the highest order, providing almost no security. It's been widely proven that without stereoscopic cameras providing depth perception these systems can be defeated simply by holding a photo up to the camera.

http://www.internetnews.com/security...+Black+Hat.htm

And as for the display, while it's clearly impressive the choice of words was telling. They only said they were superior at 4" screen sizes and above. It's clear their displays, although very good, aren't a true competitor to the retina display yet in terms of image quality. No doubt they'll get there soon though.
I agree about the face unlocking, but my point was its a native functionality ready to use out of the box, whereas in iOS its not really available to a standard user...

Obviously the display isn't as good as the Retina. The Retina has 330ppi on a 3.5" screen, and the GN has 316ppi on a 4.65" screen, so that is still very impressive given the screen size though the Retina ppi is a minimum 326ppi. Apple kept their screen size but just upped the resolution. I'm sure if they had gone up to 4" the ppi would have dropped.
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Old 19-10-2011, 12:03
Roush
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Apple kept their screen size but just upped the resolution. I'm sure if they had gone up to 4" the ppi would have dropped.
I think that's one of the reasons why they didn't introduce a new screen size. They don't want to reduce the quality of the screen so are waiting until they have a similar PPI display available for mass production in a larger size.

Also, from an OS and app perspective it made logical sense, as you only have to pixel double things that can't be re-rendered in the higher resolution by the OS. I don't believe Apple will leave any of the iOS devices with more than two active screen resolutions at any one point. When the next model arrives (hopefully with a bigger screen!) the 3GS will disappear and the current retina panel with become the 'lower' resolution available.
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Old 19-10-2011, 12:24
grumpyoldbat
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Ice Cream Sandwich looks great, the phone itself, no thanks. It's too big. I want a phone that's phone sized, not a mini tablet.
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Old 19-10-2011, 12:30
paulbrock
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I'm not so sure about that. iOS has face recognition APIs for developers to use if they want. Apple use it themselves in the camera app to optimise the auto exposure calculations.
I suspect that recognising a face (any face) in a photo like the camera app does, is a whole different algorithm to recognising a particular face. Gimmick of the highest order though.

What else can they really do at this point? Since its launch the iPhone has never leaped forward, and the Nexus phones have never leaped forward either...
I would say the Galaxy S2 was a leap forward, and came largely out of nowhere to take a stack of awards and (according to some sources) the best selling phone (or smartphone, I forget) in the UK for the last few months. It's predecessor seemed to have been a mid market smartphone, nothing 'exciting'.

Perhaps the phone manufacturers have run out of ideas, it's now just making them a bit faster, a bit prettier and a bit nicer screens.
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Old 19-10-2011, 13:00
ACU
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The best thing about this phone is the display and ICS. ICS does look very slick and polished.

I was looking forward to the release of this phone. Having a look at it now, I cant say I will be rushing out to get it. The phone isnt bad, its a very good phone - I was just hoping for a better processor I guess. I am pretty sure that ICS will be available soonish if you have a rooted phone. So for the time being I think I will stick with my DHD.

The face recognition is a gimmick, I cant see me using it. Hell I dont even bother locking my phone now. I guess they have learnt something from apple with regards to gimmicks.
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Old 19-10-2011, 13:03
tdenson
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Interesting approach. Note that if someone "finds" it, they can still answer it if you ring it (you don't need to unlock to answer). But yeah, whilst I have photos and texts and whatnot on there that I wouldn't particularly want a stranger going through, I don't think there's anything that could cause too much damage in the wrong hands. Still feel better locking it, though

I've always taken that approach. Most people are honest. Statistically it's more likely to be found by someone who will endeavour to return it and I'd rather make that more likely by leaving it unlocked. Don't forget, if you have reason to believe it has fallen into bad hands you simply remotely wipe it.
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Old 19-10-2011, 16:53
alanwarwic
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Obviously the display isn't as good as the Retina. The Retina has 330ppi on a 3.5" screen, and the GN has 316ppi on a 4.65" screen
Obviously if Apple's next phone gets everything down to the size of a pinhead you will be even more impressed.

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Old 19-10-2011, 17:43
CoolboyA
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Obviously if Apple's next phone gets everything down to the size of a pinhead you will be even more impressed.

If he can see the 14dpi difference in the screen, then he must have really amazing eyesight

I'd much rather have a 4.65" 720P HD 316dpi screen, over the 330dpi one on the iPhone4. I have a Samsung Galaxy S2, and when I use my iPod Touch 4G I really miss the bigger screen!
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Old 19-10-2011, 17:48
IslandNiles
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I'm not sure about screen size.

I really like the large screens that the Desire HD and Galaxy S2 (two that I have personally used) offer. They are really nice for web browsing and the like. But what I don't like is the overall footprint of the phones, which I find a bit too big for my taste.
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Old 19-10-2011, 17:57
Dai13371
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So, was the announcement of the Galaxy Nexus (even the name is disappointing) as much of a let down as Apples recent announcement?
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Old 19-10-2011, 18:09
alanwarwic
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I went from a 3" 480X 320 to a 3.5" 800 X 480.
It took me 10 minutes to realise 800 x 480 really required a much bigger screen.

Proportionally 4.5" is in fact the magic number. Luckily my switch from a GT540 to a SF was at near zero cost.
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Old 19-10-2011, 18:15
ACU
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So, was the announcement of the Galaxy Nexus (even the name is disappointing) as much of a let down as Apples recent announcement?
I dont think so, as we did get some good out of the announcement...ICS.

The apple mob got nothing really....apart from Siri.
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Old 19-10-2011, 18:19
Dai13371
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Must admit was marginally underwhelmed but only because it did not retain the Nexus Prime name and it is under-clocked to 1.2 from 1.5ghz. Possibly waiting for battery technology to catch up.
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Old 19-10-2011, 18:26
edEx
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The apple mob got nothing really....apart from Siri.
That's because the iOS 5 release happened the week before the new iPhone launch. Most of the new features were software. Apart from Siri and extra speed I think the big thing on the new iPhone hardware was significant camera improvements, something some won't ever notice.

Oh, and of course sorting out the call drop dodgy antenna thing
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Old 19-10-2011, 18:39
Zack06
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So, was the announcement of the Galaxy Nexus (even the name is disappointing) as much of a let down as Apples recent announcement?
In a word no. The GN is still a cutting edge device, and it is slightly superior to the SGS2 imo, that screen looks insane, and ICS looks brilliant...

I wouldn't feel cheated if I bought this device, but I couldn't say the same if I bought an iPhone 4S.
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Old 19-10-2011, 18:52
Gormond
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Underwhelmed. An improvement on the Galaxy s2, sure, but about as exciting as the 4s - not very. Also a great example of why techies shouldn't do presentations!
Is is better at all?

It looks way to big IMO, the S2 is already quite a big phone but the new Nexus is massive, not only that but both cameras are worse and even though the screen has a nice pixel density it isn't using the plus screen is it?

If I had the choice of the 2 I would take the S2 assuming it also gets 4.0.
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Old 19-10-2011, 18:53
Red Arrow
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Has there been any talk when ICS comes out and if so I assume they will be releasing an update for the Nexus S? I mean that was the reason I bought that phone, so it gets the updates first.
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Old 19-10-2011, 18:57
wilt
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Has there been any talk when ICS comes out and if so I assume they will be releasing an update for the Nexus S? I mean that was the reason I bought that phone, so it gets the updates first.
Yes the Nexus S will be getting ICS, Andy Rubin says it will be 'a few weeks after' the Galaxy Nexus goes on sale.
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Old 19-10-2011, 19:10
IslandNiles
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I dont think so, as we did get some good out of the announcement...ICS.

The apple mob got nothing really....apart from Siri.
I'm not sure that's a very fair characterisation. The announcements from both companies were actually pretty comparable. Both have launched a new phone and an upgrade to their respective OS.

Where the phones are concerned, the iPhone had an internal refit but kept exactly the same design. The Galaxy Nexus looks different to the SG2 but isn't very different in terms of spec. Both are really an incremental step from their previous flagship models, rather than anything groundbreaking.

On the OS front, I'd say iOS 5 brings more to the table than ICS, but that's probably because it had a bit of catching up to do. Stuff like the Notification Centre, which is a big deal for iOS, already existed on Android. ICS looks more polished and adds some new features (the detailed data usage chart and ability to limit mobile data is a good addition) but isn't light years ahead of what Gingerbread had to offer.

I'd say both companies went for incremental updates rather than game changers.
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Old 19-10-2011, 19:27
alanwarwic
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While you ahve to admire the ingenuity in getting to 30, there is in fact some interesting stuff if you wade through.

http://betanews.com/2011/10/18/30-aw...cream-sandwich
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Old 19-10-2011, 21:05
Roush
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I suspect that recognising a face (any face) in a photo like the camera app does, is a whole different algorithm to recognising a particular face. Gimmick of the highest order though.
Apple acquired their face recognition technology last year when they bought Polar Rose for an estimated $22 million. Considering the price paid it's logical to conclude that the implementations are highly advanced (and highly patented!).

Apple won't have halted development of the technologies either.
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Old 19-10-2011, 21:48
Matt D
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Shame it's not still called the Nexus Prime

Nice phone - and an awesome screen!

Other than the screen, though, is it really much of a step up from the GS II?

Same 1.2GHz clock speed as the GS II - but using the same CPU as the 4S (dual-core ARM Cortex-A9, but at 1.2GHz compared to the 4S' 800MHz) and the same GPU as the original Galaxy S (PowerVR SGX540).

5MP rather than 8MP like the GS II / 4S.


Why not give it an 8MP camera, and why not give it a better GPU?
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