Comment by chimeracoder | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chimeracoder | Hacker News Reader

What does the Nexus brand mean anymore, though?

I'm not even trying to be sarcastic. I can't figure out why I should be excited about this. Okay, Google's cooperating with some unnamed hardware manufacturer and some unnamed wireless carrier to produce this device, but what does that mean for me?

Nexus doesn't mean that it's produced with a given hardware manufacturer, or even a given set of hardware (beyond the implication that it's generally the best available at the time). For phones, it doesn't mean that it's tied to any given carrier, though it also doesn't necessarily mean that it can be used between carriers either (thanks to the GSM/CDMA incompatibility). It doesn't mean that the device won't have carrier bloatware on it. It doesn't mean that the device will be the first to receive updates (for proof: take a look at the angry Nexus S users who still don't have ICS). It doesn't even mean (anymore) that the device will receive updates directly from Google! Since Google's now apparently establishing a two-versions-per-year schedule for Android, those once-valuable promises mean absolutely nothing.

I have a Galaxy Nexus, and I love it - I'm glad I upgraded. But I honestly don't know what Google thinks the Nexus brand means - maybe they have some idea, but they're not doing a great job of communicating it to even a tech-savvy Android user. I'm glad that Google took the UI to the next level on ICS, but unless they solve this problem very soon, Android's in trouble.

Nexus devices get updates sooner and longer than other devices. I'll never buy a non-Nexus Android device until other manufacturers build up a better track record in that regard.

Not anymore, though. The Galaxy SII has already received an ICS update. Google still hasn't even announced the date for the Nexus S ICS update, and the Nexus One won't be updated at all. The only Nexus device running ICS is the Galaxy Nexus, which was released with ICS, and even the Galaxy Nexus is receiving OTA updates from Verizon, not directly from Google.

So Nexus devices aren't updated sooner, and they don't even receive more than one major version update. With a six-month release cycle, that means that even the Nexus devices will have a very short shelf life and will be behind very quickly.

If that's the case, then the only advantage is being able to unlock the bootloader - but that's not specific to Nexus phones, and if you still have to install a custom ROM to keep your phone up-to-date after only 6-12 months, how much of an 'advantage' is that?

My Nexus S received its ICS update back in November. So that part isn't accurate.

First, not all received the update. Second, Google froze the update when they found a battery-drain bug, so even those that were intended to be upgraded could only be upgraded within a short window.

The point is not whether or not there exist Nexus S devices that have received an update - the point is that most Nexus S devices have not yet received it, and are still unable to update through any official means.

No. The point is that the Nexus S was planned to receive ICS many months before any other phone (aside from the Galaxy Nexus). If you had any other phone you had to wait a long time to even get confirmation that your current flagship device would even get ICS. Most enthusiasts run ICS on their Nexus S and have done so for months. And google never announces when to roll out updates since it isn't rolled out for everyone at once.

And don't blame google for the messed up market in the US. Best of all is that you are not locked in some vendor version of android. Even if some carrier managed to install bejeweled on your device (again, sucks to be in the US?) that's it, you don't get a vendor specific phone-application etc. etc.

Nexus devices are getting updates sooner, they get longer support, they don't get ruined by bloatware (you might still argue that they don't get enough support, or get updates soon enough but you can't get anything better in the android world). You've tried but you seriously can't point to a single exception to that (surprised it took samsung so long to get ICS out for SGSII, it took HTC what, two weeks to roll out Froyo for the Desire?). Given the current situation the only reason I'd ever not chosing a Nexus was if I intended to use a custom rom from the get go, with a Nexus I don't have to fiddle with that.

A lot of phones released after the Nexus S will never get ICS. Regardless of whether their hardware can take it or not. HTC won't update the Desire Z (pretty much same hardware as the Desire HD (which will get ICS)) because they don't feel like updating sense for it, and without sense they can't possible give you ICS...

Can anyone even point to a phone that was released before the Nexus S but will still get ICS?

The Nexus S received the update. The Nexus S 4G (on Sprint) did NOT YET receive the update.

-- Nexus S 4G owner.

I have a Nexus S (non-4G) in Canada, still waiting.

The Nexus One won't be getting an official ICS update from Google because the hardware can't support it, not because Google are too lazy to push one.

This is patently false. 1) There is a stable build of ICS for the N1. The only hiccup is the video driver which is not being officially developed/released. Hboot was reformatted and it works quite well.

2) Apple upgrades older hardware with "lite" versions of their OS update. See iOS 4 for 3g (not an iOS expert, expecting corrections). No reason Google couldn't do this or at least release an optional experimental update. Sheesh, it's not like the rest of their stuff isn't beta.

They really need to get their house in order. The Nexus brand has erroded even with the hardcore fans (such as myself)

Here I am holding my beautiful but abandoned N1.

Yes, Verizon screwed Google over with Wallet on the Galaxy Nexus, I bet there won't be another Google flagship device on Verizon for a long time. But Google's intention is still that Nexus means the latest unmodified Android drop.

Except it's not the latest unmodified Android - the Nexus S was top-of-the-line less than a year ago. Within six months, Google releases ICS, so you'd expect that it would be updated promptly.

...and yet, five months later we still have no idea when Google will update the Nexus S to ICS. And unlike the carriers, they're the ones who developed the entire system, so it makes you wonder what devices they were using, and why it would be so hard to make sure ICS could run on the most recent publicly-available device.

If it takes Google 5-6 months to update their own phone, then by the time the Galaxy Nexus is upgraded to Jelly Bean, it'll already be out-of-date anyway.

So even if the Google Wallet mishap were a mistake, if having an unmodified-but-unupdated stock phone is the only difference, I'd rather just scan the market for the best available phone with an unlockable bootloader and install a custom ROM myself. No carrier bloatware, and then I actually get the updates before the updates themselves are made obsolete by the new version.

> five months later we still have no idea when Google will update the Nexus S to ICS

It should be noted that only the Nexus S 4G doesn't have ICS, the normal Nexus S does.

No, that should not be noted. Yes, a few people got a broken OTA for the normal Nexus S last year. But most phones have not received an update and there are only rumors of when one will appear.

I genuinely thought that all Nexus devices were stock Android without carrier modifications. Is this not the case?

The galaxy nexus released to Verizon had no google wallet and added one or two pieces of Verizon specific software including their backup assistant. I don't believe either piece of vendor bloatware could be removed just disabled.

edit: The other pieces of software is My Verizon Mobile.

I have a galaxy nexus (verizon version) and yes, they can be disabled in the same manner as any other app on the device (hold pressing and dragging it to the top of the screen under app info and clicking disable afterwards).

If that does not go far enough, you can flash the stock firmware from Google http://code.google.com/android/nexus/images.html

My Verizon Mobile allows you to check your data usage. I don't think they can really get away from that.

For those users with grandfathered unlimited accounts there is no need to care about data usage. At the very least it should be optional and removable, which it isn't.

Not anymore. The Verizon Galaxy Nexus has some bloatware, and Google Wallet was disabled. (You can re-enable it if you root/reflash, but then it registers as an 'unsupported device', so the officially supported device doesn't have all of the ICS features)

And even if that were the only difference, then there's not much to be excited about.

If you really want that, you're one of the 2%, and you're probably interested enough to go through the now-painless process of rooting/unlocking and flashing a custom ROM to get a 'vanilla android'.

And the other 98% of Android users don't care if they have bloatware/Sense/TouchWiz/Blur, because they don't even know the difference.

So even though the Nexus is not always a stock Android phone anymore, even if it were, that's not enough to get that excited about, either as a developer/modder/tinkerer or as a casual user.

You don't have to root the Verizon Galaxy Nexus to run Wallet. You simply have to install the Google Shopper app and auth it first.

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