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Nexus Madness



  German V6
Bought a nexus 7 and the Galaxy Nexus both on the day of release and i love them both i've also owned the Nexus One and S and i can honestly say I will be buying the Nexus 4 i'd buy the Nexus 10 if i didn't have my heart set on buying a Win8 Tablet.
 
  A.N. Other
Bit weird it not having LTE. Tablet looks nice, still no bloody apps for it.


It's not that odd the phone not having LTE, as it's hardly available anywhere yet (and is chuffing expensive too) & adding it would have pushed the price up - I think it's a shrewd move - it's pretty much the only thing lacking.
 
  Bumder With A Buffer
Blimey im tempted to buy the Nexus 4 and cancel my contract.

Just can't figure out if I would actually save anything.

£36 for 24 months = £864 (thats with UNLTD texts/calls and 1gb of data)

Or buy it outright for £279 and spend around 10-15 on orange for a similar plan to mine.
 
  Bumder With A Buffer
Actually I could just go to giffgaff for £10 a month unltd everything (believe thats going upto £12 in a few days??) I didn't realise how cheap going PAYG can work out in comparison.
 
Blimey im tempted to buy the Nexus 4 and cancel my contract.

Just can't figure out if I would actually save anything.

£36 for 24 months = £864 (thats with UNLTD texts/calls and 1gb of data)

Or buy it outright for £279 and spend around 10-15 on orange for a similar plan to mine.


Is what I've done for years (since they stopped doing the 12 month contracts. Like f**k i'm going to sign for 18/24 months)

Sim Only £15/£20 per month on a 30 day rolling contract.

Buy a unlocked/unbranded phone (nexus s) sell 6/8 months later for x amount, put that towards a new phone (galaxy nexus) so on so forth.

Plus now the nexus 4 is so much cheaper, it makes sense
 
  LY 182
For £280 that Nexus 4 is a bloody good price. I'd like to see some solid reviews first.

Only thing that is a slight negative for me is the design. For me I just don't find it that pleasing on the eye.
 

Tom

ClioSport Club Member
  EV (s)
For £280 that Nexus 4 is a bloody good price. I'd like to see some solid reviews first.

Only thing that is a slight negative for me is the design. For me I just don't find it that pleasing on the eye.

As tempting as it is, i'll stick with my 5. Too many compromises would need to be made for me to switch. But its nice.
 
  LY 182
As tempting as it is, i'll stick with my 5. Too many compromises would need to be made for me to switch. But its nice.

Makes sense.

I'm still rolling with my 4 on a £10/mo SIM so my options are completely open.

Would probably be a strange choice to switch to Android now though, given I've ordered the iPad mini.
 

sn00p

ClioSport Club Member
  A blue one.
Why I left apple for Phone/Tablet devices....

If I hadn't had iOS6 prior to the iPhone 5 announcement I'd probably have done the normal thing of selling before the keynote and buying the 5 as soon as it went on sale, but the fact that iOS6 was such a weak "update" meant that there was no way I was going to do the usual trick.

That coupled with the fact that I'd bought a Nexus 7 when they were released so that I could get a flavour of Jellybean to decide if I could live with it as an OS put the final nail in the coffin when I realised that Jellybean was good, most of the historical gripes about Android were gone. Final issue is the fragmentation of the platform and lack of updates....but that goes away with a Nexus device.
 
  Bumder With A Buffer
Is what I've done for years (since they stopped doing the 12 month contracts. Like f**k i'm going to sign for 18/24 months)

Sim Only £15/£20 per month on a 30 day rolling contract.

Buy a unlocked/unbranded phone (nexus s) sell 6/8 months later for x amount, put that towards a new phone (galaxy nexus) so on so forth.

Plus now the nexus 4 is so much cheaper, it makes sense

It never crossed my mind for some reason. I suppose Its the initial outlay of £300-400 for a phone that was off putting.

I "think" I am currently on the orange Panther (old one without swapables) and NEVER come close to ANY of my limits. Not even halfway I would imagine.
 

Tom

ClioSport Club Member
  EV (s)
Why I left apple for Phone/Tablet devices....

If I hadn't had iOS6 prior to the iPhone 5 announcement I'd probably have done the normal thing of selling before the keynote and buying the 5 as soon as it went on sale, but the fact that iOS6 was such a weak "update" meant that there was no way I was going to do the usual trick.

That coupled with the fact that I'd bought a Nexus 7 when they were released so that I could get a flavour of Jellybean to decide if I could live with it as an OS put the final nail in the coffin when I realised that Jellybean was good, most of the historical gripes about Android were gone. Final issue is the fragmentation of the platform and lack of updates....but that goes away with a Nexus device.

Theres still the issue of app support at a device level, very annoying. Yes android have the popular iOS equivalent apps in the store, but will they support my device? Who knows? (TomTom, Sky Player - Both good examples)

Until i know that everything will just work, theres no point in switching.

As for tablets, app selection is woeful. (At present, i have no doubt this will change eventually but for now the iPad is still king)

But these nexi (?) are a massive step in the right direction. They just need to sort the ecosystem out now.
 

sn00p

ClioSport Club Member
  A blue one.
Theres still the issue of app support at a device level, very annoying. Yes android have the popular iOS equivalent apps in the store, but will they support my device? Who knows? (TomTom, Sky Player - Both good examples)

Until i know that everything will just work, theres no point in switching.

As for tablets, app selection is woeful. (At present, i have no doubt this will change eventually but for now the iPad is still king)

But these nexi (?) are a massive step in the right direction. They just need to sort the ecosystem out now.

I agree, but like a lot of people I use the tablet almost exclusively for:

* Web Surfing
* Email
* Facebook

It's fairly rare that I use it for anything else, the wife is the same, she has hardly any apps installed on her iPad.

Thing is, Google appear to be getting serious now. Before it seemed almost a "hobby" project for them, something interesting to kill time. The fact that they're getting manufacturers to build them good looking, well designed, well engineered, well specced and fantastically priced "high end" devices means that they're serious now, gloves are off.

As I've said before, when your product is so far ahead of the competition it's easy to justify a premium price for a product, but when that difference comes down to the "meh" region it becomes much more difficult and troublesome to justify. While you're always going to get customers who are loyal to a brand, there's a lot of customers who are savvy and don't particularly care which brand it is, they just want a good ratio of price/performance.

I think google are out of the baby booties now and have stuck on the running shoes. Interesting times ahead I think.
 
  2014 Focus Titanium
Theres still the issue of app support at a device level, very annoying. Yes android have the popular iOS equivalent apps in the store, but will they support my device? Who knows? (TomTom, Sky Player - Both good examples)

Until i know that everything will just work, theres no point in switching.

As for tablets, app selection is woeful. (At present, i have no doubt this will change eventually but for now the iPad is still king)

But these nexi (?) are a massive step in the right direction. They just need to sort the ecosystem out now.

I agree, but like a lot of people I use the tablet almost exclusively for:

* Web Surfing
* Email
* Facebook

It's fairly rare that I use it for anything else, the wife is the same, she has hardly any apps installed on her iPad.

Thing is, Google appear to be getting serious now. Before it seemed almost a "hobby" project for them, something interesting to kill time. The fact that they're getting manufacturers to build them good looking, well designed, well engineered, well specced and fantastically priced "high end" devices means that they're serious now, gloves are off.

As I've said before, when your product is so far ahead of the competition it's easy to justify a premium price for a product, but when that difference comes down to the "meh" region it becomes much more difficult and troublesome to justify. While you're always going to get customers who are loyal to a brand, there's a lot of customers who are savvy and don't particularly care which brand it is, they just want a good ratio of price/performance.

I think google are out of the baby booties now and have stuck on the running shoes. Interesting times ahead I think.

I agree with you both on this. Sn00p you are basically exactly the same as me; previously had an iPhone because it was the best thing on the market by far, now Android have caught up I've made the switch (albeit I did it a year earlier). The Google ecosystem is coming together now which is great, things like chrome bookmarks and synced across my home pc, work pc, laptop, phone etc. Google calendar, contacts etc. Once they get something to rival iTunes (although I don't particularly like the software, things like Home Share are good) it will be awesome, I think they are trying to do this with Google Play - I'm hoping they bring out a PC version to sync stuff with.

However, Tom is also right. I hate that some manufacturers are still dragging their feet with Android apps. Admittedly there's only one App that springs to my mind and that's the official Denon Remote app. On iOS it supports the 2012 models (I have an AVR-1912) but on the Android version it only supports 2013 models. Why? I have no idea, but it's damn annoying. There is a great 3rd party app which does everything and supports the 2012 models but it still pissed me off because I like official apps (and the 3rd party ones are never as pretty!).

Sky Go was just as annoying but they seem to have sorted the support out for all the latest models which is fine by me.

Every other app that I use is great: Ebay, Paypal, Facebook, Twitter, HSBC, Halifax, Whatsapp, Rightmove, IMDB, Google Now, Rules of Golf, PGA tour, Sky Sports Football SC, RAS Mobile, O2 Priority Moments, Youtube, Gmail, Dropbox, Amazon, Waze.
 

sn00p

ClioSport Club Member
  A blue one.
However, Tom is also right. I hate that some manufacturers are still dragging their feet with Android apps. Admittedly there's only one App that springs to my mind and that's the official Denon Remote app. On iOS it supports the 2012 models (I have an AVR-1912) but on the Android version it only supports 2013 models. Why? I have no idea, but it's damn annoying. There is a great 3rd party app which does everything and supports the 2012 models but it still pissed me off because I like official apps (and the 3rd party ones are never as pretty!).

For the most part, I actually find *those* kind of applications (mostly) pointless. Things like Hi-Fi's come with remotes, and generally it's a case of "Pick up remote, press button" to do the functionality.

When you start involving a device like a phone/tablet, you then go to "Pick up device, Unlock Device, Find App, Launch App" before you're at a point where you're ready to do the action you wanted anyway! It's bizarre why you'd want to add extra time/effort/complexity if all you wanted to do was turn the volume up or switch inputs etc - it's far easier and quicker to use the normal remote control!

One exception to this (that I've found) is that I have found works a lot better is the TiVo App for the iPad which (up until recently) could be tricked into communicating with a Virginmedia TiVo, if you've ever used a VM TiVo you'll know how slow and ridiculously overly complex it is to use. The TiVo app actually presents all the information that you see on the screen in a super fast way, it's like a remote control on steroids. However, it's usability could just as easily be replicated on the box itself if it had a fast enough CPU and better thought out navigation/UI.

Most of these "remote control" apps are more a case of "because we can" rather than "because it's useful".
 
  2014 Focus Titanium
For the most part, I actually find *those* kind of applications (mostly) pointless. Things like Hi-Fi's come with remotes, and generally it's a case of "Pick up remote, press button" to do the functionality.

When you start involving a device like a phone/tablet, you then go to "Pick up device, Unlock Device, Find App, Launch App" before you're at a point where you're ready to do the action you wanted anyway! It's bizarre why you'd want to add extra time/effort/complexity if all you wanted to do was turn the volume up or switch inputs etc - it's far easier and quicker to use the normal remote control!

One exception to this (that I've found) is that I have found works a lot better is the TiVo App for the iPad which (up until recently) could be tricked into communicating with a Virginmedia TiVo, if you've ever used a VM TiVo you'll know how slow and ridiculously overly complex it is to use. The TiVo app actually presents all the information that you see on the screen in a super fast way, it's like a remote control on steroids. However, it's usability could just as easily be replicated on the box itself if it had a fast enough CPU and better thought out navigation/UI.

Most of these "remote control" apps are more a case of "because we can" rather than "because it's useful".

Disagree, I have two zones of speakers which means 50% of the time I'm not in the same room as the Denon. To use the original remote I would have to get up and go into the living room, do what I want to do, then come back, sit down and see if it had the desired effect or whether I need to change it again. With the app I can do it from anywhere.

Admittedly most people aren't like me so it makes no difference but in my world it does. :D
 

sn00p

ClioSport Club Member
  A blue one.
Disagree, I have two zones of speakers which means 50% of the time I'm not in the same room as the Denon. To use the original remote I would have to get up and go into the living room, do what I want to do, then come back, sit down and see if it had the desired effect or whether I need to change it again. With the app I can do it from anywhere.

Admittedly most people aren't like me so it makes no difference but in my world it does. :D

There you go, a valid reason to use it!

I bet you're the exception to the rule, infact, I'd probably say that a lot of people install these Apps use it once or twice before they realise unless they have good reason to use it, it's actually quicker and easier to use the original remote. It's probably just like Siri!

One question though, what do you use when you're in the room with the HiFi?
 
  LY 182
One exception to this (that I've found) is that I have found works a lot better is the TiVo App for the iPad which (up until recently) could be tricked into communicating with a Virginmedia TiVo, if you've ever used a VM TiVo you'll know how slow and ridiculously overly complex it is to use. The TiVo app actually presents all the information that you see on the screen in a super fast way, it's like a remote control on steroids. However, it's usability could just as easily be replicated on the box itself if it had a fast enough CPU and better thought out navigation/UI.

When you say up until recently, what do you mean exactly?

That's my only gripe about TiVo, it's so bloody slow to do stuff like viewing recorded shows etc.
 

sn00p

ClioSport Club Member
  A blue one.
When you say up until recently, what do you mean exactly?

That's my only gripe about TiVo, it's so bloody slow to do stuff like viewing recorded shows etc.

It's a long saga.....

Basically, the US TiVo can use the brilliant App that TiVo provide in the (US) app store. Now, this app did not work with the VM TiVo, however, by using a bonjour proxy it was possible to trick the app into thinking that the UK TiVo was a US TiVo and then it would all work, rather well as it turned out.

However, the last TiVo update that got pushed to people finally stopped this working, Virgin have been promising their "Branded" version of this app for well over a year, probably closer to a year an half - it's well over a year later than they promised and it's still not here.

When it does finally make an appearance, things like viewing recorded shows are lightning fast, you can click on a show and press play and it starts playing on the box. If you have multiple boxes you can switch between them as well.

God knows when it will finally be out, but it's ridiculous that it's taken this long.
 
  LY 182
Ah okay. The proxy thing makes perfect sense.

Silly question now... How does the app make things quicker? I'd assume the app still interacts with the TiVo box so I don't understand how it could be quicker. Perhaps the app interacts with something else there? (I'm sure the answer is obvious).
 

sn00p

ClioSport Club Member
  A blue one.
Ah okay. The proxy thing makes perfect sense.

Silly question now... How does the app make things quicker? I'd assume the app still interacts with the TiVo box so I don't understand how it could be quicker. Perhaps the app interacts with something else there? (I'm sure the answer is obvious).

The slowness of the box is down to the UI, this puts the UI on your tablet.

This is the TiVo app tricked into working on a UK box:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxdzo2ur2tQ

this is a leak of the UK app:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxGCvl1U1eA
 
Quite astonishing that The Telegraph are still reporting that iPad Retina has 326ppi, and that Nexus 10 is inferior in that department. You'd think someone would have corrected them by now.
 
  Clio 172
Quick question, as I'm not up to date with android. Do they still have a silly "update cycle" of new products? (I.e they stopped updating them pretty damn quickly?)
 
Personally I know next to nothing about Android, but I have read that Nexus branded devices are unencumbered by any restrictions for software and updates.
 
  RX7 FD
Yea Nexus devices get Android updates first because they don't have to be pushed through a manufacturer like Samsung/HTC/LG to be skinned then the network to ensure compatability (all that balls).
 
  Clio 172
Hmmm it's even more tempting. Iv had the misfortune (or was it?) of using a Galaxy S while my iphone got sorted. It's OLD, doesn't have ICS. But I found it quite refreshing to use, it had its problems (the screen/keyboard is shite, I'm always accidentally hitting full stops), but I found it easy to use, and secretly, found it quite good. Haven't used anything newer than that though, inthinkmit has a fair amount of potential.

My stepdad wants a tablet for Xmas, mums thinking about an ipad mini, I might just suggest one of these.

So, just to be certain, the nexus' will be updated for quite a while? And not be doomed at the next major update?
 

Tom

ClioSport Club Member
  EV (s)
Who knows, thats the risk you take.

They don't sell well enough for them to be supported long term, but im not sure what google have said.
 
  German V6
Who knows, thats the risk you take.

They don't sell well enough for them to be supported long term, but im not sure what google have said.

Nexus is googles own thing pretty sure my old Nexus S still got a few more updates after the Galaxy nexus came out.
 

Tom

ClioSport Club Member
  EV (s)
Still gets them now. Nexus S is 2 years old? Getting jelly bean soon?
 

Cookie

ClioSport Club Member
I'm pissed off with T-Mobile's constant "coming soon" for Jelly Bean, so I think I'll flog my S3 and get a Nexus 4 when they're released. It's a nice phone though, but the N4 looks nicer.
 
  2014 Focus Titanium
I'm pissed off with T-Mobile's constant "coming soon" for Jelly Bean, so I think I'll flog my S3 and get a Nexus 4 when they're released. It's a nice phone though, but the N4 looks nicer.

Just flash the Official S3 JB ROM yourself via Odin. It's extremely easy, doesn't require any hacking or rooting and takes about 15 minutes. I've flashed the non-branded (BTU) version and it is nothing short of fantastic. JB really is Android at it's very best.
 

Cookie

ClioSport Club Member
Just flash the Official S3 JB ROM yourself via Odin. It's extremely easy, doesn't require any hacking or rooting and takes about 15 minutes. I've flashed the non-branded (BTU) version and it is nothing short of fantastic. JB really is Android at it's very best.

Link to instructions and I'll have a go
 
  2014 Focus Titanium
Link to instructions and I'll have a go

Download Odin for your PC here. (You might need to be a member of XDA Developers to get this, if you can't access it just search google for Odin v3.04.

Download the official Samsung UK BTU Rom here.

Instructions For Flashing Firmware:
  • Extract the firmware
  • Open the included Odin
  • Turn off your device
  • Put your device into Download MODE (Home + Volume Down + Power)
  • Click PDA and select *.tar.md5
  • Then finally click START!
    biggrin.png
All this is taken from this thread on XDA Forums.
 


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