Google teases October 4th announcement | Hacker News Reader

Google teases October 4th announcement

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55 pointsMahn50 comments

Two images from the source that aren't actually used in the rotation:

https://madeby.google.com/static/images/tenfour/extras/001.j... https://madeby.google.com/static/images/tenfour/extras/002.j... (clearly shows a phone)

One that looks like an old iPhone, to boot.

How come anytime smartphones come up people start flinging poo at each other? Seriously, why does anyone care that someone prefers an iPhone, or is disappointed at the rumored price increases?

us vs them + bikeshedding.

Pixel phones? http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/09/google-confirms-octob...

Apple and Google should save money and hire the same design firm (similar to how Toyota and Subaru collaborated on the 86/BRZ).Their flagship phones already look very similar. "Premium" != "Aluminium unibody, with edge-to-edge glass" /s

I though that Apple and Google already used the same design firm: Apple inc.

Please. This fanboyism without any concrete evidence is just a troll comment. I can go an about how Apple ios design brought in inspiration from Windows Metro & from other competitors too but, this thread isn't about that. Please do provide specific examples or notes to validate or create a new thread.

Did any Android manufacturer release a phone with a similar form factor as the iPhone prior to the iPhone? Yet suddenly now it's almost impossible to find a phone that doesn't mirror the iPhone...

You mean a slab of glass, most of which is screen?

Wow. Design award of the decade... Or actually simply what people thought about before but wasn't possible until then. (The LG Prada around at the same time shows this)

It's pure fanboyism.

Not to mention old sci-fi movies and tv shows having similar looking devices for decades.

Strange that if it was so obvious or so easy, there were people saying stuff like this [0]:

"Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a touch-screen is on a phone. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here. I’ll be keeping my Samsung A707, thanks... Color me massively disappointed."

"Touch screen buttons? BAD idea. This thing will never work."

"no qwerty keyboard? ojhsdodsagfadhjldgs!!"

"This looks like a disgusting bastard child of iPod/Cellphone/PDA. Yes it's shiny, but I’m sure it won’t be so shiny once you touch it."

"lol last i checked many companies tried the tap to type and tap to dial ... IT DOESNT WORK STEVIE, people dont like non-tactile typing, its a simple fact, this isnt a phone its a mac pda wow yippie.... "

"It took apple how long to develop this ONE PHONE, samsung and motorola release new phones every few months lol, and constantly innovates and gets better, im sorry but if im sending text messages i'd rather have my thumb keyboard than some weird finger tapping on a screen crap."

Somebody should ask that last guy what phone he uses today.

And yet it seems literally no other company can figure out a form factor that competes with it. So yes, you're right, design award of the decade.

Do you really think that's HTC/Samsung/LG/Huawei/Motorola's inspiration for all their devices? They're modeled after the LG Prada?

[0] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/17-of-...

No, I think that that was the direction phones were moving in anyway, and it was an obvious step.

I also think that fanboys like yourself give way, way too much credit to Apple for 'inventing' the form factor and the smartphone when they weren't even first to market with that form factor and other smartphones had been around for years.

They did what they do well - designed a good product with mass appeal at the high end of the market, they even lead the market. I'm not trying to claim they're somehow bad or just derivative (because I'm not a fanboy)

No, but the LG Prada was released in May, 2007. It is the first mobile phone with a capacitive touchscreen.

Yes, the LG Prada phone for one. But it's terrible for other people to follow Apple, but completely ok for Apple to ape the design of others.

Designs pioneered by Android and later aped by Apple

* 4, 5, and 6 inch Phablet phones. Remember this commercial? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O99m7lebirE

* Mini tablets. http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/10/18/jobs-7-tablets-should...

* Edge to Edge Displays (now rumored to be in iPhone 8)

* Removing physical home buttons for soft buttons w/haptics (now rumors iPhone 8, iPhone 7 half way there)

* Dual cameras, multi-led flash

* Wide gamut display, shipping in AMOLED phones first.

* Builtin water-resistance, done in Android phones for years, even with a headphone jack present

You can argue that when Apple adopts the design of Android phones, they execute better, but what's galling is that any feature Apple has first is referred to as "theft" when Android adopts it, even if Android improves on it, not the other way around is just overlooked.

It's pretty apparent, really, that the iPhone was in no way inspired by the LG Prada, given that the iPhone was announced less than a month after the Prada was announced.

Maybe you could argue that all the slab devices were inspired by the Prada, despite the Prada 2 itself backing away from the form factor and adding a keyboard?

I didn't claim Apple doesn't steal features from others. In fact, Jobs himself has been very vocal about his feature theft.

My only argument is that the iPhone form factor, despite its dominance today, was never "obvious." The iPhone is what created a world in which it's nearly impossible to buy a phone outside of that form factor.

There were slab smartphones before the iPhone, arguably, they retained a lot of buttons (usually cursor keys, or 2-4 macro buttons, especially on models that had resistive touch). I've consistently been an early adopter of high tech smartphones and carried a few.

The iPhone didn't drive a flurry of copying of the slap concept because of it's slabbiness, it drove it because of it's features. Do you think the Blackberry's adoption was because of it's keyboard, or because of the addictive nature of push messaging in the crackberry's implementation?

An iPhone with a keyboard form factor, but with all of the other features it launched with, would have still dominated. The OS was radically advanced over Symbian, it had a much better screen, CPU, and just worked better. I had plenty of Symbian smartphones with Wifi, none of them could lock on as quickly as an iPhone or seamlessly switch.

The iPhone did everything right for a Smartphone, and created the demand that made it something non-geeks could use. This is what compelled everyone else to follow.

Go grab you iPhone 2007 model and compare it to today's iPhone 5/6/7, the designs don't match or feel the same at all.

Capacitive touch IMHO is the main advancement, not the overall industrial design.

The lady doth protest too much...

I think it's more of a symbiotic relationship. Google lifts hardware design elements from Apple and Apple lifts OS features from Android.

Could someone fix the headline please? The link suggests that it's October 5th, and not 4th.

It says October 4th for me. Maybe it's detecting timezones?

Yes! It's October 4th 9AM PDT, so it shows users the local time.

Probably. The title says 'Oct. 4 - Google', but the content of the page says 4 Oct.

As I'm in the UK 4 Oct would be correct way around for me.

Unless they pledge iphone-class software support, I can't think of any announcements that would really move Android forward.

Wait, are you saying that the Nexus phones have had anything but better software support than iPhones?

Are you saying they have not?

What are we all saying?!

Are you saying we have not said?

Is there anything that hasn't been said yet?

So you're saying there's a chance!

I think he means providing software support, like updates. It is unacceptable for a $650 phone to only get 2 years worth of updates. Apple provides 4-5y. Sure, sometimes features are removed on older devices, and they run slower, but surely that's better than no updates at all. My company will not allow phones to connect to the exchange server if you have a phone that doesn't get monthly security updates.

This exactly, and I'm referring especially to security patches. Nexus devices are the best among Android but still pale in comparison to iOS. Google Play Services can't patch vulnerabilities in the core system libraries or the kernel. A smartphone without software updates is like a desktop computer without access to Windows updates. If Google wants enterprises to take Android more seriously, it needs a flagship line of devices with enterprise-grade software support.

I have a Nexus 5X on Project Fi and my phone gets updates very frequently. I have updates at least every month if not every couple of weeks.

What I'm taking away from this is that you have never had a Nexus device, or even used one.

* The Nexus devices (during lifetime, usually 1 year less than iPhones) are patched sooner and more often than iOS.

* Google Play Services shouldn't be able to patch system libraries or the kernel, that would be a security issue. Patching those is what a system update is for.

* Nexus devices have (IMO) much better "enterprise-grade" software support than iOS, whatever that means. And it's only set to be better with N. [1]

[1] http://www.techrepublic.com/article/three-important-security...

The oldest phone to get iOS 10: iPhone 5, released Sep 2012.

The oldest phone to officially get Android 7: Nexus 5, released in Oct 2013.

Sure, it's 1 year less, but you sure did exaggerate. Also Nexus phones get more frequent updates than iPhones, and I'd argue they're much better updates.

The Nexus 5 isn't getting Android 7.

Oh, I guess I was wrong, I was basing it on this. [1]

[1] https://android.googlesource.com/device/lge/hammerhead/+/and...

Rumours are that the smaller version (Pixel) will cost $649, with the Pixel XL costing $749. Ridiculous. You don't compete with Apple by copying their pricing. Compete by having a better SoC, better camera/screen etc..

> Compete by having a better SoC, better camera/screen

Do you think those things are free?

Right, but there is no SoC that can compete with Apple's A10 fusion SoC. Google just buys off the shelf Qualcomm parts, and they are far slower, especially when you take into account that the Google phones need even more horsepower because they run at much higher resolution.

In single core benchmarks, Apple's A10 is king. In multicore it's pretty much inline with others.

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/09/14/geekbench-andro...

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is 6 months old, and the iPhone 7 beats it by 5% in multicore benchmarks.

The iPhone has half the number of active cores.

Those A series cores are also larger than the Qualcomm cores.

No .. but Apple makes its rather hefty margin on hardware. I thought Google makes its margins on software and services. At these rumored price points, I'd rather go with an iPhone (and deal with stupid adapters). I bought a nexus 5x last year .. it had a weird screen issue. It was eligible for a change but I didn't want to go through the hassle of mailing it in. With Apple, I could have gone to a retail store. Not saying Apple is awesome .. they are acting like overlords these days (lack of Macbook refreshes, selling two year old hardware at premium prices such as the ipad air 2, etc.) but I guess they can do it because they have no formidable competition. This pricing is silly .. I suspect they will have big discounts by January.

So that this is not just a rant, here is how to fix the situation: I think Google needs to think different ;-) Compete on what Apple cannot give. Aggressive prices, expandable storage and removable batteries. It is sad that Android phones (Nexuses and others) have become more and more like iPhones when it comes to consumer hostility.

Just my personal opinions btw.

I know I'll never get a phone that's that expensive. Getting an expensive phone from Google is even less likely as they are the company most invested in selling me services and invading my privacy.

If I'm to buy an expensive phone it has to basically be a portable PC. Not tied to a vendor or service and not lock me out of repurposing it with custom firmware.

>> If I'm to buy an expensive phone it has to basically be a portable PC.

There's so many off market phones right now, or year old phones that are right around the $350 price point.

I just left Verizon, got a OnePlus 2 (https://oneplus.net/2) for $299 and it doesn't come with all the bloatware you get from carrier subsidized phones and its pretty much stock Android.

Sure you have to dig to find the Nexbit's, Blu Products, OnePlus and Meizu's, but they're out there and are very competitive in that $3-$400 range. Far less than what you're seeing for this brand new models that seemingly coming out every 6 months now.

Google should start selling a version of Nexus 5x (or equivalent) phone that comes with ads like Amazon Kindle, and price it at $99.

These are supposed to be Google's flagship phone intended for certain audience who wants great specs like Samsung phones and stock android. I for one was waiting for this kind of phones and just hoping that they live up to the expectations on specs.

> Rumours are that the smaller version (Pixel) will cost $649, with the Pixel XL costing $749. Ridiculous. You don't compete with Apple by copying their pricing

That's fairly normal pricing for a flagship smartphone today, regardless of brand/vendor.

Nexus 6P was released in October 2015, so I imagine they will just be announcing a new phone. Taking a page from Apple's playbook with surprise announcements etc.

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