Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 19 May 2013 23:56

mahadevbhu wrote:^^

you did not get your hands on an HTC one...

They didn't have it for this event. No idea why.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 20 May 2013 00:49

Raja Bose wrote:3) Android camp is still full of cheap plasticky phones and cannot shake off the tag of "poor man's iPhunwa" in terms of look and feel. Surprisingly Moto's Droid Razr line-up look better than most but in true Moto fashion they effed it up by adding a real cheap & toxic looking plastic trim around the sides. The exception is the LG Nexus4 - beautifully designed and built. All it needs is a LTE modem and good distribution/marketing and it will be a winner - the price is already awesome since Chacha is subsidizing it directly. That is the only phone from Android camp which can come close to iPhone5 in terms of look and feel and I would argue is better than the WP phones except Lumia 925 especially in the way LG used the 2.5D glass here.

Can you reveal which Android phones you evaluated? Also, the Nexus 4 does have TMO's LTE frequencies capability, but needs a f/w change to enable it. Who knows if they turn it on. The Nexus 5 will have LTE though, but I doubt it will be coming to VZW.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 20 May 2013 01:16

Don't have the list here but off the top of my head, pretty much all the Motor Oil Droid variants, HTC (the One was missing), all the Sammy variants (all GS variants and most if not all Note variants), all ZTE, Huawei, Pantech, some LG ones which didnt have a mark but looked too turd like anyhow, the Nexus4 was kept separate for some reason, all the Sony variants, some Lenovo, Sharp, Kyocera plus a bunch of unmarked phones from Compal and Foxconn. They had some Motor Oil ones which I can't tell you about. And they had some of the Micromax and Videocon(?!) junk which use MediaTek - caused mucho

amongst the first world pasand anal-e-cysts.

Without coming to VZW and ATT, Nexus4/5 cannot take off. Only the iPhone managed to take off exclusively on ATT without VZW's help at all - no such luck for the Android/WP camps.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 20 May 2013 03:58

I have played with pretty much every phone multiple times too.

Nothing comes close to iPhone5 in terms of build. I suspect that the cost of the phone is high too, with carriers shelling out bigger subsidies. Android phone build quality is a mixed bag. Typically I have found that phones that dont have removable batteries are built better than those which do. I suspect that in these phones, battery is stacked behind the LCD and between the LCD and the board.

Nexus 4 is top notch in build quality, though I am not so sure about that glass back. Surprisingly, Droid Razr M was among the best. I liked the smaller size (even though I have big meaty paws) and the kevlar back. The external screws on the side too (even though sounds bad) are surprisingly solid. They need to take out the ugly ass motorola logo in the front (makes it look like a digital tester or high speed oscilloscope) and remove the seam running around the phone. I think Moto has hit the correct injeeneering with this one: They need to explore the kevlar back, small bezel design more. HTC one is the best in build quality, by a long margin. I would rate it better than the iPhone. The look, the handfeel and the frontfacing speakers should be experienced to be believed side by side with the iPhone. I wish there were a smaller model. Android OEMs should think of smaller phunwas.

Software wise, as I have mentioned several times, iPhone looks dated. Possibly because they were first to the market. A design refresh is needed, I am sure one is coming under Ive. After that, expect a huge bump in their marketshare. Biggest gripes I have are (a) No widgets (b) No app drawer vs desktop shortcuts (c) Confusing notifications (badge vs pull down). (4) Confusing and not so productive application switching. Otherwise, they are functional and highly productive.

Lumias are very well built, I found them heavier than I would expect. But I have big hands so didnt mind. They are smooth. The major gripes I have are over-reliance on typography rather than shapes or colors. There is a reason why a man picture and a woman picture is put on bathrooms rather than writing "Men" and "Women". When it is urgent, people have a tendency to not read. Apart from that, I felt animations were overdone. Animations when in a small region and with fading is tasteful. But no matter what you do, entire screen spins or slides. Every application spins or slides. I have no idea why. It is spinning and sliding all over the place.

All in all, the phunwas have hit a point where you can be productive with any of them. Especially if you are using applications on the cloud, so you dont worry about syncing. I feel all three platforms have hit a point where UI and UX gripes are making mountain out of a molehill. The user is going to pick up (a) Platform they have already been using and are happy with (b) Platform that is cheaper (c) Platform that has been advertised to them. In that order.

In all three platforms, I wish to see more diversity in handsets -- to cover the long tail of niche use cases. Smaller sizes, slide out keyboards, rugged phones, thick phones with insane battery life and so on. Possibly wont happen with FriutCo, might happen with Android and M$

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 20 May 2013 04:27

The weight is a disadvantage of using housing which is milled from a single block of polycarbonate (Lumia) vs injection molded plastics (GS4). The former feels premium but heavier as it doesn't scale well with size, the latter feels cheaper but lighter. The LG Nexus 4 glass back feels almost like well finished plastic, so they can substitute it with plastic without perceptive loss in quality by using larger molds and edge finishing. Overall glass backs do feel nicer but are also more prone to damage and shattering.

---

Good UX is what makes things sticky and ensures customer loyalty especially in the consumer market. Otherwise people will fly away when they get a chance. Good UX happens thru good design and as the Mahdi said:

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

That is fundamentally misunderstood by most ITvity folks even today - its almost as if the Mahdi didn't exist and nobody learnt anything good from him (a lot learnt a lot of bad stuff from him without fail). FruitCo understood that better than any of the engineering-centric companies and used that to kick mush of entire industries whether music or mobile. A non-mobile example of the same concept is the older IE versions and Chrome. Chrome offered good UX with its speed, simple UI and stability - people ditched IE in droves. Another example, is outlook.com vs Gmail. If Gmail continues down its current UI re-design path and Mickey can figure out a foolproof way for people to migrate all their folders/labels/filters/messages from Gmail to outlook.com, people will do the same jump (some have done it already despite lack of that).

gakakkad · Post by **gakakkad** » 20 May 2013 07:04

>>Nexus 4 is top notch in build quality, though I am not so sure about that glass back

i don't know if it is me ,but the glass back of my nexus ended up in a pretty bad shape after falling from a very small height. it looks horrible now.various online fora to are critical of it.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 20 May 2013 08:06

Raja Bose wrote:Without coming to VZW and ATT, Nexus4/5 cannot take off. Only the iPhone managed to take off exclusively on ATT without VZW's help at all - no such luck for the Android/WP camps.

Which is what LG wants. They want to sell the Optimus G/G2 through VZW & ATT. Only AAPL could get away with telling the carriers to GTH and there will be no modification to the OS or added bloatware.
The reason the Nexus line doesn't take off is that there is no advantage in paying for unsubsidized phone without getting a discount on your monthly billing, which is why I support TMO in this effort. As their network expands and more people BYOD, perhaps ATT & VZW will sit up and listen. Of course this will take some pushing from the FCC as well, but don't count on it. The recent appointment of the next FCC chairman is a telecom insider and even the commissioners are all Ivy League attorneys or Washington insiders. None of these mofos are long experienced telecom engineers who rose up the ranks into management or scientists from academia, or even former senior military officers with surveillance/communication experience. The rip off these guys do while in government on behalf of the telecom industry is extensive. Then after leaving government, they return to the industry and collect a nice compensation. The 2G telecom scam in desh that cost over $500 million/MHz was peanuts compared to the favors the FCC does for the telecom industry.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 20 May 2013 08:11

Carriers in US need a swift kick in their mush. For a country which claims to be a capitalist heaven and leader of the "free world", massa sure seems to have a huge bunch of monopolies - cable, telecom, finance, you name it....

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 20 May 2013 08:24

We have our Indian origin FCC commissioner Ajit Pai who served as VZW's associate general counsel prior.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 20 May 2013 08:40

Great, so basically telecom and banking regulation in massa is just a nest of thieves with the same persons moving from one side to the other and scratching their buddies' mush on the other side. How can anybody in massa claim with a straight face that their financial 'regulation' and 'standards' are better than India is beyond me - they seem to be more on par with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Abhijeet · Post by **Abhijeet** » 20 May 2013 12:51

My wife's iPhone 5 feels tiny compared to my Galaxy Nexus. Reading email and browsing is much more difficult on a smaller screen. And I haven't found a good replacement for the Android Back button on the iPhone -- if you go from one app to another (follow a map link from the browser), the only way I've found to get back to the previous app is to press the Home button, find the icon for the app you were in, and tap it. This seems like a major usability omission.

The iPhone 5's camera is far superior to the Nexus' however, and even to the Nexus 4 and HTC One as far as I can tell. The HTC One is fairly good because of its larger sensor area, but the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 are really quite poor.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 20 May 2013 14:06

Abhijeet wrote:And I haven't found a good replacement for the Android Back button on the iPhone -- if you go from one app to another (follow a map link from the browser), the only way I've found to get back to the previous app is to press the Home button, find the icon for the app you were in, and tap it. This seems like a major usability omission.

jailbreak it. zephyr allows you to swipe screen to jump to previous app.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 May 2013 14:47

there is a taskbar already there per this report. never knew about it..but I have seen my daughter's random swipes bring strange things and modes up that I cannot do by intent

http://ipad.about.com/od/iPad_Guide/ss/ ... e-Ipad.htm

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 20 May 2013 16:57

Do any of you use 3G routers with your USB datacards in desh ? If so, what model vodel did you choose ? The previous router I picked up from Frys a few years ago (Sabrent model) used to work fine with Reliance Netconnect, but did not work at all with Tata Photon+ . Had to pick up a D-Link router in desh to make it work. Wasn't aware that these cards weren't uniformly compatible with any 3g router.

merlin · Post by **merlin** » 20 May 2013 19:03

Suraj wrote:Do any of you use 3G routers with your USB datacards in desh ? If so, what model vodel did you choose ? The previous router I picked up from Frys a few years ago (Sabrent model) used to work fine with Reliance Netconnect, but did not work at all with Tata Photon+ . Had to pick up a D-Link router in desh to make it work. Wasn't aware that these cards weren't uniformly compatible with any 3g router.

I use a TP-LINK TL-MR3020 3G router with my Reliance NetConnect+ card. Works fine, although the dongle is a CDMA one and not a 3G one. The TP-LINK website also mentions compatibility with a few 3G sticks as well.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 May 2013 19:16

something finally different from the usual - Jolla plans to launch its sailfish smartphone, and android app compatible
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/unveiled-jol ... 92-11.html

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 20 May 2013 20:12

Thanks merlin! Yes, that one was among the list I went shopping with, but there were newer and better ones out there. I picked up the Dlink DWR 113, though my choice would have been the TP Link TL-MR3420 if it was available.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 20 May 2013 21:51

Singha wrote:something finally different from the usual - Jolla plans to launch its sailfish smartphone, and android app compatible
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/unveiled-jol ... 92-11.html

Thats the Sailfish OS from old MeeGo guys. Skeptical of its success though it will look pretty.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 21 May 2013 00:26

Raja Bose wrote:Good UX is what makes things sticky and ensures customer loyalty especially in the consumer market. ... its speed, simple UI and stability - people ditched IE in droves.

The gizmo with a simple intuitive and fast (AKA smooth AKA responsive) UI in a in the same form factor class will win. It doesn't matter to the users how it is achieved. Obviously not an easy job.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 21 May 2013 00:50

^^^And marketing - don't forget the importance of marketing. The idea that if you build a good thing people will naturally come in droves only happens in utopia.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 21 May 2013 01:21

Mort Walker wrote: The recent appointment of the next FCC chairman is a telecom insider and even the commissioners are all Ivy League attorneys or Washington insiders.

In other words, regulatory capture, which has been the story of FCC (and of course finance and banking). Harvard has a lock on most of these positions.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 21 May 2013 01:24

Raja Bose wrote:^^^And marketing - don't forget the importance of marketing. The idea that if you build a good thing people will naturally come in droves only happens in utopia.

Yes, but no amount of marketing would sell a turd (some of the MS stuff right after DOS). First one needs to shite a rainbow.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 21 May 2013 01:56

matrimc wrote:
Raja Bose wrote:^^^And marketing - don't forget the importance of marketing. The idea that if you build a good thing people will naturally come in droves only happens in utopia.
Yes, but no amount of marketing would sell a turd (some of the MS stuff right after DOS). First one needs to shite a rainbow.

Actually marketing can sell a turd - look at Sammy!

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 21 May 2013 02:52

RB mullah, go and take a look at the HTC One in one of the carrier's stores. Nexus 4 fit and finish is nothing compared to what HTC has achieved with this one. And being all metal, it is probably sturdier than the glass back of the Nexus 4. It's probably the only smartphone which feels better in your hand than the iPhunwa. Too bad it doesn't come with vanilla Android out of the box.

Android is caught in a vicious circle. All the complaints against Android - Being unreliable/unstable, random crashes and very late or nonexistent updates to the OS would vanish overnight if phones like the HTC One and GS4 etc. released with vanilla Android. They'll end up selling a lot more phones than what they do now. But the manufacturers won't do it because then there is nothing to distinguish between the phones apart from their shape and build so users are stuck with crappy skins and an Android version which is 2-3 cycles old.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 21 May 2013 03:10

nachiket wrote: Android is caught in a vicious circle. All the complaints against Android - Being unreliable/unstable, random crashes and very late or nonexistent updates to the OS would vanish overnight if phones like the HTC One and GS4 etc. released with vanilla Android. They'll end up selling a lot more phones than what they do now. But the manufacturers won't do it because then there is nothing to distinguish between the phones apart from their shape and build so users are stuck with crappy skins and an Android version which is 2-3 cycles old.

That is the disadvantage of a horizontal platform model - it is hardly unique to Android or even mobile. In mobile even a decade ago Symbian used to suffer from it, in desktop Windoze suffers from it.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 21 May 2013 06:06

Consumer report calls S4 the best smartphone out there. They are pretty reliable and serious reviewers. A lot of people will be swayed by this.

http://bgr.com/2013/05/20/samsung-galax ... r-reports/

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 21 May 2013 09:35

Gurujan please suggest a good android browser. Presently using dolphin with my sammy gal 750. HC

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 21 May 2013 10:25

Dolphin has only one prob, to go back to top of internet page, have to finger travel all the way. And it is boring

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 21 May 2013 11:07

What's wrong with Chrome?

rohitvats · Post by **rohitvats** » 21 May 2013 11:15

Raja Bose wrote:^^^And marketing - don't forget the importance of marketing. The idea that if you build a good thing people will naturally come in droves only happens in utopia.

And this is where Samsung is miles and miles ahead of everyone in desh.

For example, the activation/launch of S4 was planned on a pan-India basis. They did either simultaneous or back to back activation/launch in all the metros across the country. And not only that, they are reaching out to all the state capitals and major cities in the country...in all, the target is to make sure S4 is available in 44 cities in the country almost simultaneously. This is the planned reach for the product. They are not only targeting the urban crowds but almost anyone with a desire to own a swanky latest smart-phone.

rohitvats · Post by **rohitvats** » 21 May 2013 11:16

Nokia LUMIA 925 becoming available in desh in a short while...

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 21 May 2013 11:20

rohitvats wrote:
Raja Bose wrote:^^^And marketing - don't forget the importance of marketing. The idea that if you build a good thing people will naturally come in droves only happens in utopia.
And this is where Samsung is miles and miles ahead of everyone in desh.

For example, the activation/launch of S4 was planned on a pan-India basis. They did either simultaneous or back to back activation/launch in all the metros across the country. And not only that, they are reaching out to all the state capitals and major cities in the country...in all, the target is to make sure S4 is available in 44 cities in the country almost simultaneously. This is the planned reach for the product. They are not only targeting the urban crowds but almost anyone with a desire to own a swanky latest smart-phone.

That is why a turd like GS4 sells in 10 x millions. There is a reason why a good sales person gets paid more than a good injineer - building something is not enough, you gotta sell the darn thing

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 21 May 2013 12:41

Raja Bose wrote:What's wrong with Chrome?

Thanx will try.

***

Gurujans one more help

How the fonts are developed, especially the desi devnagari and like?
Are ther any app or prog?
Does it require knowledge of fine arts shart?

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 21 May 2013 12:47

Bose garu,

Tried installing chrome, says your device is not compatible :-(

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 May 2013 14:19

because anything about Apple makes news. same thing by ibm, netz or chipz will a yawn.

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 21 May 2013 17:37

Murugan wrote:How the fonts are developed, especially the desi devnagari and like?
Are ther any app or prog?
Does it require knowledge of fine arts shart?

Not sure of now, but a decade back it was Fontographer 3.5 and CorelDraw. Developing fonts was very cumbersome process. Those days Telugu and Kannada fonts were fragmented between SriLipi and Anu. We group of friends successfully developed ASCII replacement charts (for Kannada Fonts) and converted all beautiful Anu into SriLipi versions.

There are beautiful fonts in SriLipi and Anu (for Anu you may get cracks).

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 May 2013 19:54

Fascinating article..the ruins of super science
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/th ... r-science/

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 21 May 2013 20:31

Murugan wrote:Bose garu,

Tried installing chrome, says your device is not compatible :-(

hmm....what device is it? Is it rooted already?

Singha wrote:because anything about Apple makes news. same thing by ibm, netz or chipz will a yawn.

As per last week, UKstan is investigating Chacha for tax fraud from ad sales.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 21 May 2013 20:39

Raja Bose wrote: That is why a turd like GS4 sells in 10 x millions. There is a reason why a good sales person gets paid more than a good injineer - building something is not enough, you gotta sell the darn thing

They did get pretty high ratings from consumer reports.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 21 May 2013 21:03

^^^^CR are unbiased reviewers but their review methods are similar to credit rating agencies - specific parts of the report are useful vs the report in its entirety. Regardless of what CR says:

(1) GS4 will sell well.
(2) Its still a turd.

Sammy has the ability to really make great devices and cream the likes of HTC or YellG but as is usual in a sooted booted run company, their refrain is, people are buying anyhow why spend money to make it fundamentally better? Then one day if people stop buying and jump ship, they will scratch their heads and go "WHOA!!!!! Haramkhoron!!!! What happened?!!!!!"