Posts Tagged ‘nexus one’
Google’s Andy Rubin explains the Nexus One flop
Give Andy Rubin, the architect of Google’s Android mobile operating system, points for honesty in discussing the failure of the company’s experiment in selling mobile phones directly to consumers.
“We bit off more than we could chew,” said Rubin, in reference to the company’s move almost a year ago of offering its Nexus One smartphone for sale directly to consumers from its web site, free of ties to a carrier.
The new Nexus S, by contrast, is launching with T-Mobile at a subsidized price of $199 and . (It’s also available, unlocked, for $529 — but not directly from Google, as the Nexus One was.)
Unlocked phones are commonly sold in Europe, but in the U.S., carriers subsidize the price of a handset in exchange for forcing consumers to sign long-term service contracts — a tie that Google hoped to break with the introduction of the Nexus One.
What ultimately killed the experiment, Rubin said, wasn’t pushback from carriers, but the burden of setting up systems to provision phones with wireless service. Google also faced criticism from users when it didn’t make telephone customer support available at first.
Rubin said Google looked at the length of time it took to set up each connection with a carrier and multiplied that time across the hundreds of carriers in the world and decided it made more sense to spend that time developing new features, like Google’s recently introduced Gingerbread version of Android.
He made the remarks in San Francisco at D: Dive Into Mobile, a conference organized by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, two veteran tech journalists affiliated with News Corp.
Swisher and Mossberg probed Rubin repeatedly on the question of Android’s profitability as an arm of Google. “I bring my accountant with me everywhere I go,” cracked Rubin.
Google executives have said Android is profitable if one considers Google’s sales of advertisements on Android-powered phones.
“When I was a startup company, there was no way I would be profitable,” said Rubin. Before Google bought Android in 2005, the company was planning to give away its software and make money providing development services to carriers.
But Rubin wasn’t bullish on that plan, he now admits: “I probably wouldn’t have made it as a startup company.”
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Google finally spills the beans on Nexus S, coming Dec. 16 on T-Mobile
Get ready for the new Android king. Google has , which will come equipped with the latest Android release, version 2.3 “Gingerbread.”
The phone will be available unlocked for $529, or together with a T-Mobile plan for $199, at Best Buy’s website and stores on December 16. It hits Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse stores on December 20 in the United Kingdom.
The company didn’t reveal much today that we don’t already know about the Nexus S: It’s co-developed by Samsung (which explains its similarity to Samsung’s Galaxy S phones), will feature a 1 gigahertz Samsung Hummingbird processor, and contains a 4-inch display that’s contoured to fit snug against your face. The phone sports a front-facing camera for video conferencing, and a rear 5 megapixel camera capable of shooting 720p high-definition video.
The Nexus S will also feature a “pure Google experience”, just like the Nexus One. This means the phone won’t be burdened with any third-party software like other Android phones and will also receive Android updates faster than other phones.
As Google CEO , the Nexus S also features near-field communication (NFC) technology, which allows it to wirelessly retrieve information from NFC tags on items like posters and stickers, as well as make in-person purchases without the need for a credit card. The inclusion of the technology is a big sign that NFC will find its way into many more Android phones in 2011. We recently reported that to build an NFC-based mobile commerce network dubbed Isis, which will also debut some time next year.
The Nexus S will also be the first Android device to run the Gingerbread version of the OS, which will bring improvements such as a more refined user interface, NFC support (not surprisingly), a new keyboard, built-in VoIP calling, better copy and paste functionality, and support for gyroscope sensors. Google also announced that its Gingerbread software development kit, which contains a bevy of programming tools, is .
Coinciding with the announcement, is now live on Google’s website. There’s also a new Twitter account, , that’s dedicated to Nexus S news. Google put together two short videos on the phone as well, one on the back story of the device, and another that’s a trippy demonstration of its capabilities. You can find them both below.
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Google’s Nexus One successor revealed: Meet Samsung’s Nexus S
Dear Google, please announce the Nexus S already so I can dump my iPhone 4.
We finally have a clear glimpse of the Nexus One’s successor, Google’s next major Android superphone, and a .
The phone is currently being tested by Google employees, and is apparently called the Nexus S (instead of the Nexus Two). Best Buy’s product listing mentioned that the phone features a “Pure Google” experience (meaning it runs Android, and no third-party interface “enhancements”, like the original Nexus One), and that it would be available on T-Mobile for the holidays. The product listing has subsequently been removed.
Engadget’s photos from a Google tipster reveal that the phone sports and that it looks a lot like . The Nexus S looks like it’s using the same 4-inch Super AMOLED screen as its Galaxy cousins, and previous reports say that it’s using the same 1-gigahertz Samsung Hummingbird processor as well. There’s also a visible front-facing camera for video conferencing, which is only available on one Galaxy S device, Sprint’s Epic 4G.
The Nexus S certainly isn’t leaps and bounds ahead of other Android phones like the Nexus One was. Samsung’s Galaxy S phones were launched just a few months ago, and as we just mentioned, they’re likely not that much different from the Nexus S internally. Other Android manufacturers like Motorola and HTC have also continued iterating on their hardware with devices like the Droid X and Incredible, which are about on-par with Samsung’s hardware. It will likely be the first phone to run Google’s Android 2.3 update, but other high-end Android phones should be receiving that update over the next few months as well.
Just like the Nexus One, the Nexus S doesn’t appear to be for everybody. Instead, it will appeal to hardcore geeks who are looking for the best possible Android phone for this holiday season. That same crowd will appreciate that the Nexus S only runs pure Android, without the cruft of other software slowing it down. Google will probably also sell it without contract.
Honestly, I can’t wait for it. Despite reports that AT&T’s New York cellular network has been improved, my iPhone 4 experience has only gotten worse when it comes to voice calls. I love the platform and hardware, but I need to get on another network stat. With T-Mobile’s , and , it’s certainly tempting to move over. Now I just need the right smartphone to make it worth the move.
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Samsung’s “Nexus Two” Google Android phone is real, sort of
Following a on the possibility of Samsung unveiling a “Nexus Two” Android phone soon, we now have more details that point to the device being real — though it may be a while before we actually see it.
For one thing, we now know there’s at least one person who has seen the device in action, assuming the source who can be trusted. From afar, the phone appears to look like Samsung’s Galaxy S line, but up close it has a “curve to it”, the source says. It has the same 4-inch AMOLED screen as the Galaxy phones and sports a front-facing camera for video conferencing. (At the moment, only Sprint’s Epic 4G Galaxy S phone has a front camera.)
The front-facing camera makes sense, given that on the upcoming Android 2.3 version (which goes by the codename “Gingerbread”) pointed to Google using its Google Talk protocols for mobile video chat. The “Nexus Two” is expected to be the first phone running Gingerbread.
PC Magazine’s Sascha Segan — specifically that the phone exists but may not go by the “Nexus Two” name. It’s also not going to be revealed at Samsung’s November 8 event in New York, which will most likely be dedicated to its dual-screened .
Geeks are excited over the device potentially being called the “Nexus Two” because it would be a direct successor to Google’s Nexus One phone released earlier this year. But even if it’s not officially called the “Nexus Two”, the device could still serve as a “Google experience” phone like the original Nexus One. It could be sold as an unlocked device, and developers could rely on it as the high-end template for Android phones going into 2011.
I’m still holding out hope that we’ll catch some glimpse of it at Samsung’s upcoming event. Not that I have anything against Samsung’s Continuum phone, but it doesn’t seem like the sort of device that a company would host a large press event over. It would also be the perfect time for Google and Samsung to surprise everyone with a new flagship device — especially if it can ship before the end of the year.
Nexus Two mockup
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Is Google’s Nexus Two coming from Samsung on Nov. 8?
Google and Samsung may be gearing up to announce the Nexus Two Android phone at a press conference in New York on November 8, .
Earlier this week, Samsung to the event for an unveiling of “a new Android device.” Given that the company just recently rolled out, the new device must be something special to warrant a media event of its own.
Anonymous sources tell the site that Samsung’s new phone will be the first device to ship with the just-completed Android 2.3 version, which also goes by the codename “Gingerbread”, and it will soon be available on multiple carriers.
Google’s January release of , which was built by HTC and dubbed a “superphone” because of its next-generation hardware, gave Android manufacturers a template to follow for the rest of the year. Given that Samsung just released some of the most polished Android hardware on the market, it makes sense that Google would want to leverage that to carry on the Nexus phone line.
Even if it’s not officially dubbed the Nexus Two, Samsung’s upcoming phone could well be a “Google experience” phone just like the Nexus One — meaning it will be getting its software updates directly from Google, instead of from the mobile carriers. Google has historically brought out major Android releases to the Nexus One faster than the carriers. Samsung Galaxy S users are still awaiting the Android 2.2 “Froyo” update, which has been delayed several times .
Another possibility is that Samsung is gearing up to announce at the event, which sports dual displays.
The big takeaway? Wait two weeks before buying a new Android phone, because it seems like Samsung definitely has something interesting planned.
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Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 web browser stands up to iPhone and Android (video)
Microsoft certainly has a lot of catching up to do with — its upcoming mobile platform. In particular, it’ll be interesting to see how its Internet Explorer 7 mobile browser will compare to Apple’s Mobile Safari and Android’s browser, both of which are based on the fast Webkit browser framework.
Thanks to mobile site , we have , in the form of a lengthy video comparison to its competitors (see below).
The site put an early Windows 7 device (the LG Panther) head-to-head with an iPhone 4 and Nexus One, and the results were surprising. The tester attempted to replicate simple web browsing tasks like searching on Google, dealing with tabs, and visiting complex sites. Microsoft’s IE 7 mobile browser managed to hold its own with fast web browsing speeds, a zippy interface, and arguably better tab management than the competition. Overall, it’s an impressive effort from Microsoft, and a clear sign that it’s taking Windows Phone 7 seriously (unlike ).
By the time finalized Windows Phone 7 hardware is released some time this fall, the browser will likely perform even better than we see here. That’s particularly important for Microsoft, since mobile web applications depend entirely on the speed of the browser, and other applications will depend on it for in-app web browsing.
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Nexus One update runs faster, serves Wi-Fi
Owners of Google Nexus One phones have begun receiving updates to version 2.2 of the Android operating system, Google’s open source platform that is also used by Motorola and HTC. As shown in a meant for Android app developers, Android 2.2. has a faster browser and faster game play speeds.
Android 2.2 also enables Nexus One owners to use the Nexus One as a Wi-Fi base station, allowing up to eight other devices to connect to the Internet through the phone’s 3G wireless interface.
The phone can also be “tethered” to a Windows or Linux laptop through a USB cable. In a tethering setup, the laptop uses the Nexus One as a cellular modem.
Several other new features may be harder for non-technical users to understand. But they remove several points of frustration for customers:
- Apps for the Nexus One can send mobile alerts to the phone, and can push a specific app such as Google Maps to a user’s phone so that it opens to the correct map automatically.
- Apps can store data on an SD card or other external storage.
- App data can be backed up and restored, so that users who perform a factory reset or lose their phones can refill a new phone with their old data.
- Car Mode and Night Mode configurations are optimized for low light and driving situations.
- Microsoft Exchange calendars are now supported by Nexus One’s calendar app.
- The camera and photo gallery apps have several improvements, including LED flash for videos.
One small improvement with a big effect: The Nexus One will now autocomplete email recipients’ names from a Microsoft Exchange directory. It’s a feature that Microsoft Outlook users have taken for granted for years, finally brought to Google’s Linux-powered phones.
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