This observation is hardly a blindingly new insight, but it struck me that the video above is a kind of landmark. Google was the company that was information focused, engineering focused – and pretty good at user experience (UX) and all that stuff even if not up to Apple’s standard. As someone who’s just swithed from Nexus to iPhone and regretted it, I’d say it’s overtaken Apple at UX.
Anyway I wanted a quick lock on what the new Nexus has to offer. And arrived at this video. Fifty seconds. Fifty seconds of almost complete bullshit, albeit glossy bullshit and bullshit I might enjoy if I was on the other side of the Gruen Transfer and wasn’t trying to find stuff out.
It would take a great deal to woo me back to Android. I once bought a high-end HTC with the greatest anti-hipster enthusiasm, and hated the thing. Clunky, slow and malfunctional – and it was the best of its era.
The iPhone just works. It doesn’t multitask or overclock or any of the other things I don’t really want to do. It just works, every time.
Because Club Troppo is CNET now, apparently.
The iPhone does multi-task, as does Android. I wonder how long ago you hated Android. I didn’t much like the first Android I had which was a Samsung. It was quite good but got painfully slow. I was also annoyed at how rarely we got software updates even though things needed to be fixed. Nexus I think is great because it’s under Google’s control and so is optimised to all the latest Android updates from Google and doesn’t have the bloatware of other brands trying to pretend that it’s really an HTC or Samsung operating system. My feeling having just switched is that there is now more that ‘just works’ on Android than iPhone, but the thing is that, as Machiavelli said, the pain of things that get worse for us hugely outweighs the new benefits that come our way from any change, so perhaps I’m just suffering from that, and when I go back to Android as I’m thinking I will in the not too distant, I’ll feel the same way!
I can’t help considering the switch a few times a year, but now I have so much money invested in the Appstore it would feel like a waste!
Club Troppo is large, we contain multitudes. Including, from time to time, CNET.
This is a very strange post for this site. I have read for years and generally enjoy it.
What point are you trying to make? You are upset about a video about a new version of a phone you chose? Really?
Thanks David,
Perhaps this is a case of differing sensibilities. You’re quite right it’s not a very content heavy blog post – just an observation. But there’s plenty of continuity with what’s been on Troppo – at least from me – for years. We are, not to put too fine a point on it, drowning in bullshit – a point I’ve made on numerous occasions on Troppo. I find this something which is worth pondering, though as I began the post saying, I fear I have not offered any blinding new insights into the phenomenon :)
I’ve recently ended up with a Blackberry Passport. Having never before used one of their devices, I didn’t know what to expect.
I have used iPhone and Android. Both are nice, up to a point.
However, I was pleasantly surprised by the attention and effort that has gone into the latest Blackberry 10 operating system. It just works nicely, the the Hub (email and notifications in one place) just ties the experience together (with apologies to The Dude). They seem to get that people don’t really use phones to talk with so much anymore.
Well, in trying to rescue Nicholas from the frightful charge of making “…a very strange post for this site”, I’d just like to say that I have a Sagem (French design, Chinese manufacture I believe) which I bought for $49 (prepaid) in 2007 which I use almost exclusively for just talking with. And for Telstra to send me cute little texts telling me that I can do another $30 topup any time I like.
Unfortunately, Telstra’s 2G dies in December 2016, so that will be the end of it. I wonder if there’s a nice, cheap just for talking on phone I can get to replace it.
However, there’s a quite interesting post on The Conversation ( https://theconversation.com/as-mobile-changes-the-way-we-communicate-microsoft-office-has-had-its-day-48438 ) which maintains that you ‘use your phone for anything but talking on’ types don’t write documents any more, so Microsoft Office is doomed.
I think I can see the human race splitting into two: we Neanderthal ‘use the phone for talking’ types and you advanced Cro Magnon types who use it for everything else.
Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
There’s heaps of real cheapies well under $49 that are 3G. Look out for Specials at your local Coles or Woollies. Or try Aliexpress, Pandawill or Geekbuying if you want it even cheaper.
The reason such basic phones are still being designed and produced is because they’re sold to developing countries – a huge market but one that puts a premium on robustness, simplicity and (above all) cheapness. More versatile smart phones are for richer dudes with time to indulge in religious wars over operating systems..
Oh, and I enjoy mocking bullshit so I enjoyed the post.
Hey! Underating Neanderthals is so last century.
Whether I underrate them or not, they’re still all extinct ! Except for a few genes that still live on here and there, I guess.
We never underrate Neanderthals here at Troppo.
Actually, here at Troppo most of us are part-Neanderthal.
As indeed are we all. But how many are (also) part Denisovan ?
Forgot to add that as they had larger brains than our species, they would be unlikely to choose Apple products.
About three years ago I went on a dumphone bender with a cheap-but-decent “candy bar” Nokia.
For about 24 hours I reveled in the convenience and cost-effectiveness, and had a bit of zen about relying solelyon calls and SMS, then got bored and frustrated without email or RSS.
Stuck it out for about two weeks but just couldn’t hack it, and went back to the iPhone with a sigh of relief.
I think it is enough to marvel at the fact that for about $60 you can buy a device that will locate you anywhere on the planet within about 10 m, as well as communicate in a wide variety of fashions, including via video. How easy it is to get used to awesome technology at ridiculous prices.
[Of course, it is only Android that will let you do that at that price.]