I bought a Galaxy Nexus! (and found a bug?) – Updated (4/3/12)
So last post I mentioned how I would wait to purchase the next-gen Nexus (based on an ARM Cortex-A15 design), yet.. someone bought my Nexus S so I decided to upgrade to a Galaxy Nexus.
My first Android phone was the Nexus One (GSM), purchased unlocked. My second was the Nexus S, bought through AT&T on contract. This is my third phone, also purchased unlocked Galaxy Nexus (GSM).
I purchased the Galaxy Nexus at the very excellent store Popular Electronics. This was my first time walking into the store, much less purchasing anything from there. I live in Chicago, and this store was close to my house. I saw their ad on Craigslist and walked into the store. I immediately liked the guy who was selling me the phone, he understood his products well and he stood by his products. Sure Amazon was about $30 cheaper, but I liked that I bought the phone from a physical store near my home.
Galaxy Nexus now, or ARM Cortex-A15 later
(Note: I simplify a lot of performance characteristics based on process node and architecture, but I realize a lot of factors come into play, including instruction sets, to determine how fast a particular platform is)
I want a Galaxy Nexus (GSM version) very, very much. I have attempted to subsidize the cost somewhat by offering my Nexus S for sale on Craigslist (many offers, but none were serious). The Galaxy Nexus has its weaknesses (weak GPU, battery life, weak camera, lack of warranty when bought in the U.S., bastardization of the Nexus promise, really the bastardization of the Nexus promise), but undoubtedly it is still one of the best Android phones out right now and is far, far faster than my Nexus S. I have come so close to purchasing the Galaxy Nexus many times, but held back because of the >$500 price in combination with the issues above. Note, I purchased my beloved Nexus One for $529 straight from google.com/nexus, and had with it proper warranty from HTC.
So a few days ago I managed to convince myself not to buy the Galaxy Nexus. Instead, I will wait for the next generation Nexus device. Not to say you should not buy a Galaxy Nexus if you NEED a new phone, but the fact is I have a Nexus S that can keep me going through 2012.
As with anything in the tech world: waiting means faster processor, hopefully better battery life. But let me explain in detail why it’s worth waiting.
Apple is not evil for purchasing from Foxconn
This post will be very short. I realize I get off topic too much.
The New York Times recently did a piece on the working conditions in Foxconn. What they found was not new, at all. Suicides at Foxconn were well established long before that piece, as were working conditions. However the New York Times obviously has more subscribers and readers and the piece was picked up by many different media outlets thereafter.
Foxconn has many customers, Apple being one of its biggest. However Foxconn’s clients also include (in alphabetical order): Acer, Amazon.com, Cisco, Dell, Gateway ,Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola Mobility, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Vizio.
It seems to me that Apple has been unfairly singled out by the media for patronizing Foxconn. Why? I think it breaks down into two categories:
The Haters
Some look for any excuse to bring Apple down. For example I saw this post on my Google+ stream:
I do not disagree with what’s expressed here: the author is against Foxconn’s practices which are akin to slave labor and will voice his opinion with his power as a consumer: boycotting Apple products (communicating with price, i.e. there is no price at which Apple can get this consumer to forget what Foxconn is doing).
My problem is, why Apple? And why not Samsung?
App Store vs. Android Market vs. … (choice!)
quick note: I originally wrote this piece on 6/17/2011, and never got around to posting it. Therefore as I publish this now on 2/19/2012 there may be some outdated information (which I have tried to addend). If any links are broken please let me know in the comments section below.
Thoughts on Price
Price is everything for a market economy. To quote one of my favorite NPR programs, Planet Money, “Prices communicate a lot of information.“ (jump to 11m 03s and listen until 13m 45s, but the whole piece is VERY good podcast). This communication works best when there is competition.
Google+
On a personal note, I begin residency this Friday (July 1), and would appreciate any prayers and well wishes on this next stage of my career.
Now on to the subject of this post.
Announcing Google+
This past Tuesday Google announced Google+, what the average user might refer to as Google’s answer to Facebook. In fact, Google would argue that it is more than that, and it’s not yet complete. Rather than releasing this new product all at once, Google is releasing it in pieces, slowly testing and learning as it goes. This is how Gmail was rolled out from Beta to final product, as well as many of their other products. Just like Gmail, this product is currently invite only.
I was fortunate enough to receive one such invite so I hope to very briefly discuss my experience with the website over the past couple of hours.
I would like to sincerely thank the benefactor, P.T., for the invite. For their privacy I do not want to give their full name. I do not even want to link to their blog for fear people will inundate them with requests of their own. Frankly if you know me well enough to read this blog, expect an invite as soon as I have the ability to send them out.
Android Apps, for the Muslim in you
I, the author of this blog, am Muslim. There are a few apps that I find essential as a Muslim, and I wish to share this information with you.
If you are a non-Muslim who loves how technology can make one’s life easier, perhaps you will want to read this short post to help any Muslims you may know.
*In fact, the second app on the list, Shush!, is something I think every Android user should download. So please, read on!
Netflix on Android, a little bit more free
A quick review
In my previous post, Netflix Annulled, I had to correct an even earlier post in which I explained why Netflix would not come to previously released handsets. At the time of the Netflix Annulled post, Netflix had released the app for 5 handsets (both Nexus phones, HTC Evo, HTC Incredible, and HTC T-Mobile G2).
I reasoned these phones were targeted because of their popularity, and that Netflix wanted to start on the handsets with good sales volume. Although I also questioned then, why they chose to ignore the original Motorola Droid.
In fact the official Netflix app had a “check” built-in to the software so that on each launch it would check which phone it’s running on and would fail on any officially unsupported phone. Of course many found a way around this check and were installing Netflix on phones that were not officially supported. This made me question further, why is Netflix trying to restrict the use of this app?
Ubuntu and TRIM
I just purchased a Kingston SSD 64GB for $64 (after rebate) and installed it on my Acer 1410. I will be posting my experience with it soon, as well as the computer itself. For now though this post is more of a call for help and frustration.
Linux has had TRIM support since kernel 2.6.33 (Feb 2010). Windows 7 has had TRIM support since its launch (Oct 2009). OS X hopes to have proper TRIM support in its upcoming 10.7 (Lion) release.
Thus Ubuntu has had support for TRIM since 10.04, and I was excited to partition my SSD and dual-boot Ubuntu 11.04 with Windows 7. Having done that I’ve been using Ubuntu for about 3 days now, though I should note this is not my first experience with Ubuntu. I thought I would look into checking whether TRIM is enabled and active on this install, just to be sure.
Google Docs, Forms
Since my blog post on the Google Spreadsheets code (for which Jonathan’s comments were immensely helpful, so thank you Jonathan!) I realized there is a far better way to go about entering the billing data my mom needs.
It would be far easier if I could make a webpage for my mom to enter the data into. I could Bookmark it in her browser of choice (Firefox 4) and whenever she needs to add more hours she simply goes over to the page and enters the appropriate date/time.
Netflix Post annulled
Back to Android and Netflix.
I should really update with a new post because Netflix has released an app for Android while I was vacationing in The Great Smokey Mountains. The app only works on a few handsets: HTC Nexus One, Samsung Nexus S, HTC T-Mobile G2, the original HTC Evo 4G and the HTC Incredible. Still it defies my conclusion which I had based on a much earlier Netflix blog post with regards to hardware DRM support.
You can track which Android phones are supported on this page.
