Details Of Android 3.0 Gingerbread – SIP Support, Gtalk Video Chat and More | Hacker News Reader

Details Of Android 3.0 Gingerbread – SIP Support, Gtalk Video Chat and More

digitizor.com

38 pointsdkd90336 comments

Original source: http://phandroid.com/2010/10/18/exclusive-first-android-ging...

Remember that Google recently hired Matias Duarte from Palm, who headed the UI design of webOS. These subtle revisions aiming towards design consistency and taking the ugly out of Android, if true, are very promising.

Also, rumors that Gingerbread will launch by December, and 4.0 towards the end of next year:

http://phandroid.com/2010/10/19/android-3-0-should-be-ready-...

Whether the rumors are true or not, I'm really hoping for and looking forward to a version of Google Voice that works entirely over the phone's data connection. With Skype caller-id now supporting Google Voice numbers and Skype on Android, we're close, but not entirely there yet.

Not to be a buzz kill, but I think that's the first thing that will be carrier disabled. The downside to Android's openness is that carriers are open to disable features that they don't like. And they certainly have been pushing against "dumb pipe" since there's still plenty of money in selling "minutes".

I suspect that you're right. It's one of the reasons I was enthusiastic to buy the Nexus One directly from Google, and was disappointed to see the idea fizzle.

I really think it'd be for the betterment of all of us if wireless phone companies became commodity wireless internet providers. Sigh...

Perhaps, but Verizon's LTE will be a "dumb pipe": https://www22.verizon.com/opendev/faq.aspx

It will be interesting to see what happens.

What leads you to believe that Verizon or any other carrier wants to become a dumb pipe?? A decade of contrary statements to the press suggests otherwise.

I doubt they want to, but the device openness on that spectrum is mandated by regulations.

Just because any ODI-approved device will be allowed on their network doesn't mean that they have to sell/subsidize devices that are free to use the data connection for calls.

so buy the rooted/rootable android device from hacker-friendly company X, and run it on VZ's LTE network.

Thats not really that bad though - you can still buy phones that can be rooted.

Or just not live in America :)

Or get a Nexus One, which you don't need to root. Still the best phone in my opinion.

That's not something the carrier can disable. The Google Voice APK is a side loadable app. The only way VZW/ATT could kill it is if they sniffed the traffic from EVERY SINGLE PHONE and tried to block access to the SIP endpoint.

... which isn't feasible or possible on the scale you'd be talking about.

There are plenty of vendors who would kill for the chance to sell a box to Verizon that blocked all traffic on the ports that this would use.

Which would certainly reignite the whole net neutrality debate.

Or the carriers can simply choose not to preinstall Gingerbread on the new phones.

Several phones don't allow non-market apps.

By several do you mean 2 from AT&T? And that can easily accept sideloaded apps regardless of AT&T's desires? yeah...

All of which is completely unsubstantiated rumor attached to a blurry picture that could just as easily have been any number of 3rd party ROM themes...

Edit: Also, good luck seeing Google Voice/SIP over data connection if you ever intend on buying a carrier-released phone. Or at least not without paying a surcharge equivalent to the cost of a voice plan a la tethering.

Do you think Google would implement it if carriers wouldn't agree? Maybe. But I think the carriers will support that feature. Why? It's simple.

Verizon, for example, could say "Yes, we sell this Android 3.0 phone and you can make VOIP calls on it - you only have to buy this expensive LTE data plan from us".

Carriers can easily embrace this and make even more money from it than from minutes.

People aren't that dumb; they're only interested in VoIP to save money. As soon as it costs more, people will be back to circuit-switched voice calls (which are higher quality anyway).

There are other advantages to VoIP. Namely, portability. If your office has a VoIP phone system, you could take calls at your desk or on the go without a person trying to track you down, forward the call, etc.

  > As soon as it costs more, people will be back to circuit-
  > switched voice calls (which are higher quality anyway).

In my experience the quality of Skype to Skype calls (Android to desktop) can be way better than POTS.

Pardon? Most of my experience is with Skype/iChat, but I find sound quality to be far better than POTS.

> if you ever intend on buying a carrier-released phone

Why would you ever do such a silly thing?

Because it's a lot easier for most people to justify dropping $200 now and paying out the rest over time in a plan that you'd be paying for anyway than it is to justify dropping $600-$800 now. I am pretty sure that the carriers don't discount rates for non-contract phones. People just don't have the money to justify spending that much on a phone when there are so many cheaper alternatives.

Excepting developers, most people are happy to save $400-$600 even if it means they have to deal with a Blockbuster app cluttering the menu.

I am pretty sure that the carriers don't discount rates for non-contract phones.

T-Mobile is the only US carrier that does -- the smartphone plans are $20/month cheaper if you bring your own phone or buy at the no-contract price.

They also have an installment plan where you can pay full price for the phone, but spread it out over 20 months with no interest and pay it on your phone bill. This seems like the best of both worlds.

Indeed, if you look over the total cost for 2 years, it's really a no-brainer:

2 years @ $80/mo, no cost for hardware: $2099

2 years @ $40/mo, $520 for hardware: $1466

The parent says it's $20/mo off for no-contract, at that rate ($60) the no-contract comes out to $1960, barely a savings of $100 overall. Definitely worth the contract if you don't have $520 to drop when you need a phone.

Or you can spread that $520 it over 20 months without interest, pay that on your monthly bill, and still get the no-contract price.

A G2 is $199 with the 2 year contract and $499 with no contract. My understanding from their website is that your first installment is due when you take home the phone, so your down payment on a new G2 would be $25.

So using nice round numbers on the prices,

24 months @ $80/month + $200 = $2120

versus

24 months @ $60/month + 20 months @ $25/month to pay off the phone = $1940

So you save $180 over 2 years, and your up-front payment is only $25 instead of $200.

> The parent says it's $20/mo off for no-contract

Looks like this changed recently; when I signed up it was $80/month for the subsidized-phone full voice+data plan and $40/month for no-contract data-only.

I personally have a Nexus One, but as the sales data shows, I am by far in the minority for doing so.

You can buy data only plans through VZW. They offer them for deaf/mute people but they're legally obligated to sell them to everyone. It's not even hard to find.

There is so much fearmongering on here from fanboys on both sides (carriers will block it, carriers won't support it, fragmentation every other word...). It's worse than other places. And that's saying something.

Yes, you can buy a data-only plan from them, but that same data-only plan explicitly prohibits the use of VoIP technologies, just like every other carrier in the US.

And see my other comment for my remarks in that regard. My University tells me that my internet connection is not to be used for accessing "obscene materials".

Guess how much that's stopped me.

Sauce http://phandroid.com/2010/10/18/exclusive-first-android-ging...

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