Last Night, I had to lie that I am in the US so I would be allowed to by Remote by 37Signals on my kindle.
Quite ridiculous and annoying.
I'm guessing here, but I think there might be some correlation between people who travel internationally a lot and people who buy high-end smartphones. Making it difficult for people traveling internationally to buy apps or to buy devices and have them shipped to their homes isn't exactly smart. I used X11 forwarding over SSH to run a browser on my VPS to make sure they let me order my Nexus 5 in the US while I'm in Germany.
1) Friend and I both have nexus devices, both setup in English with Google accounts signed in, both residing in Hong Kong. Friend creates calendar event and sends invite to to me. I get the invite in GMail entirely in Chinese with no translation links in English.
2) Install app that requires access to Google account services. App opens browser and attempts to get account permission. Google.com shows permission granting page entirely in Chinese with no English links to change language. To make things worse, the Yes / No buttons are both blue, preventing even inferring which one is which.
This last case is especially ridiculous. A nexus device, setup in English language, logged into English language Google account, browser on the device logged into Google account, and yet Google.com page displays permissions page in Chinese.
Every time I open a page it's like Google randomly picks one (or more) languages out of Swedish, English, German (it /really/ likes German though - also always places me in the middle of Germany when I go to Google Maps) and displays them to me. The worst case I've seen was when they launched the new Google Maps preview and that page header was in Swedish, the body in English and just the button in the middle in German.
Running a browser remotely in that way can be quite painful. Running Firefox locally you can tell it to use a socks proxy on localhost:1080 after connecting to your VPS with "ssh -D 1080". You may also want to set the about:config setting network.proxy.socks_remote_dns to true.
Or you could use VPN software, but that's more to setup, and you already have ssh access.
There is the "ncr" workaround for some of their idiotness but it doesn't always work. I was sad to see Bing copy this cancer "feature" as well a few years ago.
I don't understand why would that be, I've got my google account in English, I've got a UK-based address added to it,as well as a UK-based billing address. I don't understand.
Some years ago, I used the workaround of going to www.google.co.uk (google.com would still prioritize Spanish, but other regional versions, like co.uk, would show results in their language), but now it no longer works. No matter if I go to the Swedish, German or Chinese versions, and no matter my Google preferences, I still get results in Spanish.
Sometimes I even use inferior search engines due to this.
And I agree. The way Google does this with an error page for non serviced locations feels really off. It's not how the web is supposed to work. Not shipping to other countries is bad enough. This is rude.
Google should just put these things on Amazon.
And hypocritical, given they are quick enough to penalise sites which present different content to there crawler than everyone else. Presenting different information by way of adding a warning ("we can not currently supply thsi item to the location you seem to be calling from, please come back later and in the meantime let's have a look at what you could have won...") would be fine, but an error feels like "you can't have one and we don't care".
That's why I had to send my sister in the UK money to get my hands on my Nexus 4... annoying, and stupid.
It's not just Africa, either.
I'd like to get rid of these stupid borders.
Oh well. Apple seems to have no issue with me going to their US store and purchasing for my US address.
It only got one major OS upgrade since launch, which is less than most regular Samsung phones (which typically receive two).
Basically, Google's flagship phone wtih 1GB RAM just got dumped on. By Google. As they launch Android 4.4 which "should run great on devices with just 512MB ram".
That's just outright offensive. Buying whatever Nexus is out there when I needed a new phone has always been a no-brainer. Not so anymore.
The Galaxy Nexus uses a TI OMAP CPU and last September(2012) TI announced it was stopping development of OMAP solutions and shifting it's focus to embedded processors. In November it then laid off 1700 people in the OMAP division and moved everyone remaining into their embedded division.
This was around the time Jelly Bean was released and probably before development on KitKat started. Considering how tumultuous layoffs and reorganizations are, it wouldn't surprise me if any engineering support Google needed from TI fell on deaf ears. This leaves Google in a very awkward position.
The OMAP dev kernel is also quite active: http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tmlind/linux-oma... Look at the checkins in just the past few days.
Here's what it looks like on the Google side as a contrast: https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/omap
While TI announced they wouldn't be pursuing new smartphone/tablet clients, they also announced they'd continue supporting existing customers. It's worth noting that Google is an active client - the Google Glasses they released this year are running w/ OMAP 4430s (and you can see the glass kernel branches are active on the Android side).
Not to put too fine a point on it, but your post is completely unsupported by the (easily discoverable - it only took like 2min of searching to dig the above up) facts.
I doubt that anyone from Google is going to step forward with their reasoning (although, in the spirit of things, I'd be happy to be proven wrong), but I'd assume it was a pretty straight forward cost/benefit analysis. There aren't going to be new OMAP-based phones/tablets, and the number of active GNex's running stock is probably miniscule (tens of thousands?), so it just wasn't worth doing.
Sure that's a reason, but it's not an excuse.
Had something like this happened to for instance Microsoft or Apple, they would have footed the bill, engineered a solution, and lived up to what they promised their customers in the first place.
That's why you have a profit-margin after all: To foot the bill when (and not if) something unexpected happens and doesn't go according to plan.
Here Google is just cascading their own problems with their own sub-contractors directly on to their customers and saying, "Hey! Sorry. You're screwed. And btw we'll keep the money you paid us".
That's totally unprofessional and completely uncool.
Interesting, I would not have expected so much importance to be placed on unspecified rolling updates.
My current phone is the only Nexus device I've ever had, but it was easily my best unlocked option at $250-300 US. I think that holds whether it's running 4.2 or the latest.
The Galaxy Nexus was sold on software and on software alone. It's hardware was if not underwhelming, certainly not best of breed available in the market when it was launched. And it was launched with a price to match high-end phones from other Android OEMs.
If you bought this phone, you bought it because you wanted software updates.
And when you consider today's smart-phone market, phones have enough RAM, CPU cores and god knows what. New hardware is not really that interesting. All the good, new and exciting stuff happens in software.
From that point of view, Google just shit on the only thing which made the Galaxy Nexus worth buying in the first place. They just outright told the market: Not even a recent Nexus is guaranteed Android updates.
That's a severe breach of trust.
LG and Nexus FTW.
If they weren't so expensive, I'd rather have the much smaller iPhone 5S than a Nexus 5, but the price is so cheap I can't really justify going with Apple.
There was a time when I was on-board with the large-screen phone trend, but now that I have a tablet that I take pretty much everywhere, I don't really need a gigantic smartphone in addition to it.
With many tech products, I find myself lusting after stuff I really don't need, but with phones these days, it's more like "OMG! That looks so cool! I gotta ... oh wait it's the size of a kitchen table."
What I'm going to do when my current phone dies, though, I dunno... TT
In the end, it saved me about a hundred bucks!
Unfortunately it bricked and I fell back to my spare Nokia N95 which is taped together. Having a taped-together phone (with water damage which affects call quality) isn't really where I want to be but I refuse to purchase any of these huge new phones. I just want something that fits in my pocket, has a >= x800 resolution and can act as a wifi hotspot. My tablet can take care of the rest.
Nexus 4: 68.7 x 133.9 x 9.1mm [2]
It's wider, taller but half a mm thinner.
[1] http://www.google.com.au/nexus/5/ [2] http://www.google.com.au/nexus/4/
Who needs pixel perfection 200 ppi beyond what the human eye can perceive? No one. But the show must go on.
However in most smartphone use cases, that's probably not an issue.
Much preferred. Glad they're following HTC in making an iPhone-class display.
Most people don't seem to care. I care, but I still bought a Nexus 5 because it's barely over half the price of most anything comparable.
Nokia used the same trick with their N9 phone.
I still don't understand why they only sell this in some EU countries and not others. Friends in the know tell me it's something to do with certification which seems strange inside the EU.
But even if that's the case surely they could just show me the damn page and then tell me they can't ship to my address. That's what Amazon does for some things anyway. At least that way I could look at the damn thing and potentially have it shipped somewhere else.
When I first went to the play store site, it showed "sold out". Later on, I refreshed the page randomly and it showed the price tag button which lets you order. I tried to order it, but by the time I got to the checkout page it showed my shopping cart as empty. Going back to the front page showed "sold out again".
I waited a while, reloaded once in a while until I saw the price button again, and clicked through really fast to the checkout screen and I was able to purchase one.
Your mileage may vary.
Sensors: Accelerometer GPS Compass Proximity/Ambient Light Gyroscope Pressure Hall Effect
[1] http://www.samsung.com/us/system/consumer/accessory/ef/c1/g6...
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans
Scroll alllll the way down to the bottom, look for the $30/month plans. They include 5 GB of data per month at 4G speeds, after that you're throttled. I've never come anywhere near to hitting that limit, so I don't know what the throttle is.
You can order a SIM card online, or pick one up in a store.
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/phone-sim-card
Once the SIM is in your hand, then you can go into one of their stores or online to get one of the $30/month options.
By the way T-Mobile sims are temporarily free instead of $10 http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Na... http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Mi...
What is a device activated on t-mobile.com? And how do you select it?
Keep in mind that my data usage is predominantly for Google Maps about town (in the Greater San Diego area), internet browsing, and occasionally streaming Pandora. I can't speak to how it would work to do much streaming video over Straight Talk. But for my needs, I'm very happy. I get what I want at a price (finally!) that I'm willing to pay. Versus how we used to pay AT&T something like $140/month (for two phones) for very few minutes (the smallest anytime minutes plan we could get), unlimited texting, and a couple hundred megabytes of data (as I recall).
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans, click "Which plan is right for you?"
http://www.metropcs.com/metro/detail/MetroPCS_SIM_Card/61021...
I've also never had a good customer experience with AT&T, Verizon, etc.
I think their data cap is around 2GB, but I've never come near that. What are you guys who are breaking 5GB caps doing with your phones anyways? The plan is unlimited voice, which is nice, since TMobile's 100min voice can be a little limiting sometimes.
Went 1 day without data access, a few days with limited connection (very slow) and a few weeks later they disabled my hotspotting ability.
I was using my phone as a wifi hotspot since I don't have internet at home.
I was under the impression it was 5GB 4G then 3G from there, but it is not so.
[1] Like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.snrblabs.g... or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moplus.gvp...
We don't have phones on Google Play.
EDIT: Strike that, it's dropped to 399€, that's still 543$.
I'm not American so I'm not sure, but I think prices in America are always listed before taxes, while they're listed after taxes in Europe.
This makes it still cheaper in the USA than in Europe, but the margin is way smaller.
$349 + 8.75% tax = $380
French price (without tax for companies):
349E - 19.6% tax = 292E = $403
It seems your comment doesn't fit with reality. ;)
This link shows me both colors as well as 16/32 gb options. https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_5_whi...
I like expansion and that was one of the main reasons I gave up my iPhone 4 for a S4.
If "expansion" is your most important feature, then this isn't the phone for you.
"There Was a Problem We are unable to cancel your order at this time. If your order is being prepared for delivery, you will receive an email shortly if you haven’t already. For further assistance, please visit the Google Play Help Center."
The orders are not shipped until Nov. 8, so this has got to be some sort of software glitch, but Im unable to find any info on how to contact support other than a link to cancel the order(that produced the original error)
Any advice?
It will likely not work on Verizon regardless of the radio, though, because Verizon doesn't want it on their network.
Why does google alway force google apps users to be second class citizens?
(That is, it has built-in pedometer sensors - not sure if it also ships with a pedometer app.)
Originally, the message after payment was: "Order not completed It is taking a little longer than normal to process your order. We will let you know via email when your order is complete. This can take up to 15 minutes."
Now, it just displays "PENDING" in my orders...
Fingers crossed!
[1] : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_effect [2] : http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/HallEffect
32gb black was available when only the 16gb white was available previously.
edit: Also note that mine is a Google Play Dev Account, which may or not affect availability.
https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_5_whi...
I mean, I might end up buying it later should there be no alternative, but at least, it gave me incentive to look around. I'm not so much of battery swapper (or remover) but not being able to replace battery when it can't hold a charge is just ridiculous to me.
I really don't understand the trend of non-removable batteries. I guess people (or the designer, maybe) want a thinner phone, but no one seems to care about practicality any more... (and I have bumper on my Galaxy Nexus, just because I can't comfortably hold it without fear of dropping as it is being too thin...)
edit: link: https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_5_whi...
$349 is not close to £299, more like £220, sure allow margin for flexability etc. But still £80 more however you look at it just a bit evil. Least the exchange rate on the 32GBversion is less evil, but still evil.
Probably sessions that people left open and didn't buy.
Brain... brain stahp...
In fact, I don't think any of the Nexus phone has had more storage than the Nexus One was capable of.
Google is doing evil by "strongly encouraging by use of brute force" users to store their data in the Cloud/NSA, where governments and private parties can then inspect that data and figure out what a good/bad citizen you are and then take action based on your political beliefs, sexual preferences, religious beliefs, and race/gender, as they have repeatedly done in the past and continue to do today.
Fortunately, there are a few phones with still support SD cards (SGS4), but I can imagine Google strong-arming them into discontinuing this support.
There's a well documented usability argument by a Google engineer against removable storage. If you don't buy that then the next most obvious argument is that Google has direct business benefits for encouraging cloud storage.
But your leap into "they want your data to be readable by the NSA" is just a touch too far for my tastes.
