Post by Pinky @ 10:19am 06/01/10 | 108 Comments
Well, today we're pleased to announce a new way for consumers to purchase a mobile phone through a Google hosted web store. The goal of this new consumer channel is to provide an efficient way to connect Google's online users with selected Android devices. We also want to make the overall user experience simple: a simple purchasing process, simple service plans from operators, simple and worry-free delivery and start-up.Of course, when you go to the page, we get the message "Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your country" - just for a change.
Specs of the phone (from The Age) are as follows:
• Display: 3.7" AMOLED 480x800 WVGA displayEngadget have a first-look review of the device as well. promoted/edited forum post
• Thickness: 11.5mm; Weight: 130g
• Processor/Speed: Qualcomm Snapdragon(TM) 8250 processor, with speeds up to 1GHz
• Camera: 5 megapixel auto focus with flash and geo tagging
• Onboard memory: 512MB Flash, 512MB RAM
• Expandable memory: 4GB removable SD Card (expandable to 32GB)
• Noise Suppression: Dynamic noise suppression from Audience, Inc.
• Ports: 3.5mm stereo headphone jack with four contacts for inline voice and remote control
• Battery: Removable 1400 mAh
• Personalized laser engraving: Up to 50 characters on the back of the phone
• Trackball: Tri-color notification LED, alerts when new emails, chats, text messages arrive
Latest Comments
108 Comments
Show
Follow Us
Advertisement
Log In
Posted 10:30am 06/1/10
Posted 10:30am 06/1/10
Posted 10:32am 06/1/10
Posted 10:34am 06/1/10
Posted 10:35am 06/1/10
Posted 10:37am 06/1/10
But Billy even if that weren't the case, it still won't sync with iTunes what will you do?!
Posted 10:38am 06/1/10
Posted 10:40am 06/1/10
Posted 10:42am 06/1/10
Posted 10:43am 06/1/10
Posted 10:43am 06/1/10
Posted 10:45am 06/1/10
Posted 10:49am 06/1/10
When do you use it? I think main multi-touch purpose I have seen which is important is to resize web-pages and images (zoom). Zoom can be accomplished efficiently in other ways - touch your center of zoom, slide a slider to zoom.
S'all good, baby.
Posted 11:02am 06/1/10
Its 2100/900, so its perfect for Optus/Vodafone.
I'm pretty sure multitouch is limited by hardware... thats how its been implied on everything I've read.
Engaget say its a good phone, but its similar to the Droid, and its no amazingly awesome new benchmark for smartphones, just a solid competitor to iPhone, Pre and Droid et.al.
last edited by mongie at 11:02:57 06/Jan/10
Posted 10:58am 06/1/10
Posted 10:58am 06/1/10
Posted 10:59am 06/1/10
Don't start me on this one.
Posted 11:01am 06/1/10
it's just too simple
Posted 11:02am 06/1/10
Pinch for zoom. It also lets you type nice and fast on the landscape keyboard with two fingers (or thumbs in this case). I also play a few games on my iphone which wouldn't work without multitouch.
Posted 11:04am 06/1/10
But I digress
From what I've read, this phone is basically just a pimped out Android device. I'm still not really interested in Android because I'm racist against Java (haha cool java shirt I found yesterday). Still holding out for N900!
Posted 11:06am 06/1/10
I doubt it really matters that much.
I'd be more concerned about the screen in daylight - Engaget say its horrible.
Posted 11:07am 06/1/10
Posted 11:10am 06/1/10
Posted 11:14am 06/1/10
Posted 11:17am 06/1/10
Posted 11:18am 06/1/10
last edited by deadlyf at 11:18:31 06/Jan/10
Posted 11:21am 06/1/10
Nah it's a bit of both, most hardware that runs android are multi-touch capable
http://androidandme.com/2009/10/news/android-2-0-does-indeed-feature-multitouch/
http://lifehacker.com/5431136/android-21-multi+touch-available-for-brave-droid-users
http://gizmodo.com/5139087/multitouch-implemented-on-g1-android-unofficially
Just needed to hack it to enable it. Conspiracy theorists would say Apple stopped Google from using mulitouch because Apple holds pattern to this tech - apparently.
Posted 11:22am 06/1/10
Palm Pre is a sprint phone, and notice we don't get it on NextG?
Posted 11:25am 06/1/10
You know, except for AT&T
Posted 11:25am 06/1/10
Sun the non-believer!
Shunnnnnnn...
Posted 11:27am 06/1/10
I'm so over this. I understand the need for reginalisation because a thousand bucks is a lifetime income in Zamibikstan - but for f***'s sake, FTA much?
Global village already you a*******s.
Posted 11:42am 06/1/10
AT&T is still primarily 1900mhz.
They're rolling out 850, but US phones are generally designed for one network... and in this case its T-Mobile.
Posted 11:46am 06/1/10
You wouldn't have to "redo" your sorting system - iTunes does it for you, and then keeps it clean whenever you add anything. On top of your "sorting system", you get smart playlists with iTunes that are really, really good. Does Android have something similar? I'm sure it's all just simple algorithms.
Thought I'd better edit this to make sure it's not a typical "iTunes is better than anything". I'd quite like to break the Apple shackles, but their products just suit me perfectly. I'm genuinely looking forward to a day when everything is more open, but it'll be useless until it's as good as the closed stuff.
last edited by BillyHardball at 11:46:44 06/Jan/10
Posted 12:10pm 06/1/10
This isn't an Android limitation. Most recent Android phones have multitouch on them, including the one I'm typing this post on. It's generally just disabled on the US versions for some reason. The Motorola Droid doesn't have it, but my phone, the Milestone (which is just the UK version of the same phone) does. So does the HTC Hero.
Looks like a great little phone, but after reading the Engadget review yesterday, I'm glad I went with the Milestone instead. They even said themselves that they'd take the Droid over the Nexus One. Now I just need to get 2.1 on this thing...
Posted 12:19pm 06/1/10
Posted 12:50pm 06/1/10
Posted 01:18pm 06/1/10
2.0.1?
Is that a simple process?
Posted 02:01pm 06/1/10
Posted 02:12pm 06/1/10
Posted 02:22pm 06/1/10
Posted 02:27pm 06/1/10
Highest in SDK is only 2.0.1 - is 2.1 Alpha/Beta?
Posted 02:31pm 06/1/10
Edit:
http://www.mail-archive.com/android-developers@googlegroups.com/msg73880.html
last edited by Opec at 14:31:41 06/Jan/10
Posted 02:48pm 06/1/10
Posted 02:51pm 06/1/10
While the Milestone and the Droid are effectively the exact same phone, 2.0.1 isn't available for the Milestone yet. There's currently no way to put any firmware on the Milestone other than what it ships with. The 2.0.1 update is due to be out for the Milestone this month though, and with that we'll get root access and all the other bits and bobs.
The Droid is CDMA I believe, so it wont be a lot of good over here, since we no longer have a CDMA network. Pretty sure that also means it doesn't take SIM cards.
Posted 03:19pm 06/1/10
Actually I thought it was cheaper in the UK and Europe, but I just checked:
US - 622.603 AUD
UK - 872.393 AUD
France - 1,019.36 AUD (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
This international pricing s*** is getting out of hand
Posted 03:26pm 06/1/10
Thats a great price, I might be getting it sooner than I expected. Been hanging out for the N900 for ages, my e90 just doesn't cut it anymore heh.
Posted 03:33pm 06/1/10
Posted 04:05pm 06/1/10
Posted 04:07pm 06/1/10
Apparently there's an app for the pinchy zoom thing.
Posted 04:18pm 06/1/10
Wowza, crazy. Seems high risk to me.
Posted 04:38pm 06/1/10
Posted 04:43pm 06/1/10
Posted 04:46pm 06/1/10
The nexus one looks decent. My specifications for a new phone have changed now that I have a itouch. Don't have to worry about mp3 player and ebook reader so much, and don't need a million and one apps. I like the idea of a decent camera though. Plus it looks pretty and is light.
Posted 05:25pm 06/1/10
Iphone V Nexus one and Droid
Same mobile network, same website, all started at the same time.
Iphone had the page loaded at 35sec into the video.
Nexus one loaded the page at 1:30 into the video
Droid finished loading at 1:38 into the video.
Why the f** would anyone want one of these if its clearly so inferior?
Posted 05:43pm 06/1/10
Posted 05:49pm 06/1/10
iPhone is AT&T... Nexus One is T-Mobile... Droid is Verizon.
Verizon is CDMA, T-Mobile / AT&T are HSPA (GSM)
Posted 05:51pm 06/1/10
Posted 05:56pm 06/1/10
Posted 06:01pm 06/1/10
its an awesome phone however i do have some gripes..
winmo - bucket of s*** - no application support compared to android or iphone
battery is wayyy too small - it wont go a night on standby without draining the battery - its not a biggy casue it charges off usb so i just plug it into my computers at work and home - however if i had to do an extended trip it could be a pain in the ass
for sure the next phone i get will be android - i have just seen too many cool things google are doing that only work well on android phones
the other thing i'm waiting for in vmware which should let me have a vm of android on this phone - that might be enough for me
my phone is still really good in the intrim - i'm hoping in a year or 2 google will come out with a real killer phone
Posted 06:01pm 06/1/10
Posted 06:04pm 06/1/10
Posted 06:05pm 06/1/10
Posted 06:08pm 06/1/10
Oooohhh hahaha... then wow, the google phones are terrible (pending response to trog's question).
Posted 06:10pm 06/1/10
as an option i can turn wifi on and then use it as a router - or connect to a wifi device
and you set the setting as if it was a laptop - so there isnt going to be conflicts
Posted 06:21pm 06/1/10
Dodgy factors that immediately spring to mind are wifi interferance and the loading of flash content.
3 Wireless devices that close together would have to be competing for wifi packets all over the place surely? That alone wouldn't explain why the Android phones took THREE times as long though.
Since Safari on iPhone doesn't support flash, it wouldn't have to wait for any flash on the site to load whereas the Android phones would?
I'm sure there's more to it, because considering how snappy chrome is, I can't accept that the general browsing experience would be anywhere near that poor.
Posted 06:23pm 06/1/10
Also, the guys says right at the end of the vid "there you have it, wifi browser test"
Posted 06:26pm 06/1/10
And yeah, both the iPhone and Android use Webkit, so I don't imagine there'd be a significant difference between their rendering speeds.
Posted 06:36pm 06/1/10
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is supposed to be released Q1 2010 I believe (Android based).
Posted 08:22pm 06/1/10
Posted 10:19pm 06/1/10
Nah. It cant be that. Otherwise the other 2 android phones would have increased their download speed dramatically once the iphone had finished. I think its more likely to do with the flash content stuff Dan was talking about more than anything else.
Posted 10:27pm 06/1/10
Posted 11:33pm 06/1/10
Milestone isn't available through any Australian carriers at the moment. I bought mine outright, pre-ordered from the UK. I wouldn't hold my breath for it to be in Australia any time soon.
But it's a pretty awesome phone, though there are some software issues with 2.0. The homescreen menus transition a bit chuggy, which is fixed in 2.0.1. Problem is that while the Droid has 2.0.1, it hasn't been released for the Milestone yet, so everyone's still waiting on that. :(
Posted 04:26am 07/1/10
i went back to my nokia 6300...
Posted 09:52am 07/1/10
Posted 10:20am 07/1/10
Posted 10:23am 07/1/10
If you go to YouTube, for example, can you watch vids though?
If I go to YouTube on my iPod touch I get a different kind of movie than if I navigate to the same page on my desktop comp. It identifies the platform and deals with.
And Google owns YouTube so if Android doesn't support that yet then it won't take long...
Posted 10:33am 07/1/10
Posted 10:43am 07/1/10
There's a Youtube app that comes with Android. If you follow a Youtube link, it'll just play the video in that.
The HTC Hero has Flash support though. It's not 100% compatible, but it can play Flash videos. The Nexus One has been shown running a beta version of Flash 10.1. The Flash website says that it'll be coming in the first half of 2010.
The Android Market. You just browse it from the phone. You can just download the installers from the net and put them on yourself if you want to, but the Market is a much nicer and simpler way to do it, so that's where pretty much all of the apps you want will be.
Posted 10:45am 07/1/10
Posted 10:47am 07/1/10
Posted 11:00am 07/1/10
Posted 11:13am 07/1/10
Posted 11:26am 07/1/10
Nexus One Dimensions: 119.0 x 59.8 x 11.5 mm
Nokia N900 Dimensions: 110.9 x 59.8 x 18.0 mm
Milestone Domensions: 115.8 x 60.0 x 13.7 mm
iPhone 3GS Weight: 135 g
Nexus One Weight: 130 g
Nokia N900 Weight: 181 g
Milestone Weight: 165 g
N900 is quite a bit thicker and heavier than either the iPhone or Nexus one.
Network Support...
iPhone 3GS
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100
HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
Nexus One
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 1700 / 2100 / 900
HSDPA 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
N900
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 1700 / 2100 / 900
HSDPA, 10Mbps; HSUPA, 2Mbps
Milestone
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100
HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
Of those phones, the only one that is NextG compatible (850mhz), is the iPhone.
All of them will work with Optus/Vodafone city networks (2100mhz), and all but the iPhone will work on their regional networks (900mhz)
So... I doubt Telstra will carry any of them. Its possible that Optus or Vodafone will.
Posted 11:29am 07/1/10
Yeah, so did my old N95, so I don't really understand what Adobe's hold up is with getting it out on Android. Doesn't really make much sense to me.
Posted 11:31am 07/1/10
SA trip writeup I'll try and do soon!
Posted 11:32am 07/1/10
Or the HTC HD2
Posted 11:58am 07/1/10
Posted 12:26pm 07/1/10
I did! :-P
mongie, top summary dude! Thanks
Posted 12:26pm 07/1/10
Posted 01:02pm 07/1/10
Posted 02:04pm 07/1/10
Posted 02:04pm 07/1/10
Spectrum is a valuable commodity, so I guess different bands cost different amounts?
Lower frequencies give better range (so require fewer base stations) and penetrate buildings more.
NextG (850mhz) is good because of this.
The European standard (and first 3G networks) were 2100mhz, which is why Vodafone/Optus and 3 are based on it.
NextG was built from the ground up later on (Telstra originally had a 2100mhz network that had similar coverage to Optus/Vodafone) so its a completely 850mhz network.
Posted 02:09pm 07/1/10
I have an iPhone 3G, and I use its smartphone features multiple times every day.
Web Browsing (especially Netbanking), Push e-mail, Apps (News apps and Games while on the bus).
I don't listen to music on it that much. I wish it had a radio.
Posted 02:15pm 07/1/10
Constantly!
exchange email on iphone im IT Admin so it helps me so much as i get notification etc and know what happens with the network without needing to be at computer... My contacts are also sync with exchange so if i lose my phone i dont lose contacts... if update my contacts they are automatically updated on the excahnge server and vice vs... this includes the calendar as well! also get my peronsal emails on there too just temporary though.
Music i use it at least once week... i use web browsing every morning to work out what exercises i am doing today www.crossfitbrisbane.com
dont really web browse much as i have tweet app and facebook app movie app etc...
Actually biggest thing i like about the iphone is SMS how they are grouped together by the person... i know a few phones do this now... but it helps when you get a reply and have no idea what u wrote back especially when ur drunk
last edited by TiT at 14:15:19 07/Jan/10
Posted 02:20pm 07/1/10
The frequency spectrum is regulated and full as a motherf*****. There will be a big fight when analog TV is taken down for good to see who can score that frequency spectrum as well.
Think of all the different things that communicate via radio waves - from aircraft control systems to phones to all kinds of crap. When a phone OEM comes up with a more efficient method of transporting data via radio waves they have to purchase some spectrum to make it happen in.
Posted 02:57pm 07/1/10
Everyday, I use my HTC Touch HD for:
- Emails, contacts, calendar syncing
- Web browsing daily when I'm on the train or when I'm on the couch at home just to quickly check some stuff and too lazy to get up :) I read my Google Reader list on my phone when I'm not at my PC etc.
- I don't use it as music player cause I prefer to read my Google reader list, that and I couldn't be f***ed carrying headphones
- GPS comes in handy when we're going somewhere we haven't been before, but it's not often we do this.
Edit:
Just wanted to add that I really can't go back and use "dumb" phone any more, I actually had to type my contact details in on one my friend's Nokia's phone and I can't stand using the phone pad... just seems to crap to use, QWERTY even software based is way better than phone pad IMO.
Contact syncing etc is probably the best thing ever because if I lost the phone I don't really care because it's all backed up at the server automatically :)
last edited by Opec at 14:57:12 07/Jan/10
Posted 03:00pm 07/1/10
I use my phone for these things far more than I use it for calls and text. Lots of people say "gee, sounds stupid, all I want is a phone that can make phone calls," but everyone I know with a smart phone uses it for all of the other features far more frequently. It's incredibly handy being able to look up whatever information you can do from home wherever or whenever you want.
As for Exchange syncing, I have no idea, because it's not something I have any interest in using. The only Exchange email I have is my work email, and I don't give a s*** about reading work email when I'm not at work.
Posted 03:22pm 07/1/10
Posted 03:42pm 07/1/10
Posted 03:49pm 07/1/10
I try to avoid email when not at work. I never use email on the weekends. Part of the issue is I have one GMail account which accumulates emails from about 10 different work/personal accounts. So basically I haven't separated work from personal life very well. I can't open my emails on a weekend because some workaholic f***wit will have emailed me with some critical problem - I hate looking at problems without solving them so I just avoid. Ignorance is bliss.
Main thing I use web on phone for is sports scores and RSS (news mostly). If I had a better suited phone I'd use Facebook on it, but that's hardly a reason to get one.
Posted 11:38pm 07/1/10
Posted 03:08pm 13/1/10
Posted 10:18am 15/1/10
In which case, this has to be illegal right?
http://www.mobicity.com.au/google-nexus-one.html
They have to be selling a US or UK phone with no warnings about the above.
Posted 10:51am 15/1/10
I was under the impression that mobile phones dialed the same emergency number all over the world, which automatically routed to local emergency services. Don't remember where I read that though.
Posted 12:10pm 15/1/10
112?
Posted 12:33pm 15/1/10
Posted 02:09pm 21/1/10
Heh.
I think the main message is that PriceUSA is successfully delivering the Nexus One ;-)
I guess the main issue with paying $700 AUD to get a phone here is that it won't be supported in any sense of the word, right? There have already been some documented interface issues, but these only look like software issues so I guess a reformat or whatever of the software will fix those, which fine for a technical person.
Posted 02:15pm 21/1/10
Also, NextG is 2100 in urban areas. The Nexus one would work on the NextG network, but you'd lose all reception in 850mhz areas. Coverage wouldn't be much worse than Optus though.