And what comes Next....Life after the Galaxy Nexus

diesteldorf

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Dec 1, 2010
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I currently have a DX and am grandfathered into unlimited data. I stream pretty frequently and tend to use my phone as a tablet first and phone second.


I am currently waiting for the Galaxy Nexus and, unless it is determined to have significant hardware and radio issues, it'll be my next phone for the primary reasons.


1. Larger screen with higher resolution---should be better for streaming movies and videos

2. ICS with pure Google--should be easier to have custom roms and strong 3rd party development

More mods possible with unlocked bootloader

3. 4G capability-I am in a 3G area but travel as well and expect the 4G footprint to be in my area next year

In my mind, my upgrade to the Nexus will be a major advancement compared to what I already have and, considering Verizon has never had a Nexus before, I am excited to see what developers will do with this phone in the future.

However, that got me thinking about what life will be like after its release. No one disputes that technology will continue to advance and phone specs will continue to improve, but I'm curious how it will affect me?

When cell phones were still used just as phones, I used them occasionally and predominantly for emergency purposes. I went with prepaid because my usage didn't justify a monthly plan.

I remember the big thing was size--the smaller and thinner, the better it was. Battery life was nice because I only had to charge once or twice a week.

I know people now that still use cell phones just for emergency purposes and just to make phone calls.

They tend to get a phone and stick with it for 2, 3, 4 years or more until it physically deteriorates and can no longer be used to serve the one and only thing they use it for--making phone calls.

And, for those people, cell phone advancement ended a long time ago. I'm sure the technology exists to make a phone even smaller than what is even available now, but is it really useful if it's so small that one has to struggle to hold the phone or see the buttons, and even read the screen?

I would argue that the the original Razr still works just fine if all you want to do is make phone calls. It's thin, battery life is great, very durable etc. I would bet people in this forum also have a certain fondness for these individuals since they could care less about upgrading to a new device. They have no reason to.

Of course, as cell phones advanced, people thought it was convenient to be able to send little messages back and forth without having to call. Phones got bigger in order to accommodate a full QWERTY keyboard, and to many, that was a real benefit because texting became so much more practical and user friendly--texting on a basic flip phone or candy bar variety kind of sucks :)

For someone that wants to just talk and text, there are phones that are durable with full keyboards and excellent battery life. Some are touch screen and can support voice to text even! Clearly no Nexus is needed, no upgrade required. Cell phone advancement for them stopped in 2009 or 2010 <sarcasm>.

Of course, for many, talking and texting was not enough. They wanted full internet capabilities, the ability to stream videos, and run 3rd party software or "apps." This was when I fully decided to enter the game and sign that 2 year contract. I was never a texter and pecking on a physical qwerty keyboard was never practical for me. However, when the DX and the Evo were released, I could see that this mobile device had the potential to allow me to stay plugged in and connected from anywhere I had wifi or 3g, AND, more importantly, have some of the same functionality as a traditional desktop computer.

At home and in the office, I use a desktop or netbook mainly for email, surfing the web, composing documents, viewing PDF files, streaming music and movies via Netflix, Pandora, Slacker, etc, Microsoft Office apps, Citrix, Oracle, Exchange etc.

I’m not a graphic designer or even a heavy gamer and the games I play are not graphically intense and don't seem to tax the processor. In regards to my computer, many of the games I play, when I have the urge, tend to be vintage and, while still fun, definitely not cutting edge.

I had a computer several years ago that worked great for these things, and while I didn't have any sentimental attachment to it, I didn't feel the need to upgrade, until one day, it failed to boot up, the hard drive couldn't be read.....the motherboard was dead. It had served it's time and was not worth fixing, so I got a new one.

Coincidentally, the death of my beloved POS Emachine ocurred not long after I had gotten my VZW DX and was still discovering its benefits beyond checking email and browsing the internet.

As I was setting up my new desktop, I realized I still needed to install some drivers to get up and running....No problem, I'll just grab them off the internet....Of course, one of the drivers I needed was for my broadband connection....I was dead in the water, at least until Monday, when I could download the needed driver onto a USB thumb drive and get back in business. But it was Saturday! Dammit. No internet for 2 days!! F**K!!!!

But, hey, at least I had my DX and could still get on the internet, send email. It would be difficult and not as convenient, surfing on a mobile browser for 2 days, but I would manage.

Then, in a moment of inspiration, I took at my DX, navigated to the website with the driver I needed, downloaded it, connected the DX to my computer, copied the driver, installed it, and was back in business. My DX was now a glorified flash drive with email and internet access, but could still never replace my brand new desktop when I wanted the benefit of a larger screen, full keyboard, printer support and a DVD Rom drive....and so I took a look at my new desktop and smiled.

The processor was a little faster. It had 2 GB of RAM instead of 1, and a DVD drive that could read and write!! After I reloaded most of my software and restored what data I could, life was back to normal.

However, I noticed that even with the extra processor power and that extra 1 GB of memory, my web pages still loaded the same as before, Netflix still streamed exactly as it had before, my documents still rendered as fast as I could type them and I could still play any old game from ID Software, run solitaire, and party like it was 1994!....In short, nothing had changed.

I'm a little more careful and tend to make more backups, use the cloud for some important files, and always keep my Windows updates current, but it's become clear to me that my day to day use, in terms of how I use a computer, has become, stunted, stagnant, and even necrofied.

We lease our computers at work and I'm honestly not looking forward to getting a new one so I can run the same office apps my current one runs just as well. I'm happy and definitely not maudlin, but I know it'll be while before I ever get the urge to upgrade my personal desktop again. Setting up and reformatting a desktop, loading new drivers, operating system just isn't as much fun as, oh, I don't no, doing the exact same thing on a phone.

"What are you doing today?"

"I'm running Titanium backup, and in a few minutes, I'm going to do a full factory reset."

"Having problems with your phone again?"

"Nope. It works great, but they just released the newest Bugless Beast ROM and I gotta see if it's any better than Cyanogen. It's full AOSP!! So, don't be alarmed, if I don't return your calls. I should be done in an hour...unless Bugless beast is really buggy and then I might have to check out the newest release of MIUI and do this all over again."

<Rolls eyes> "OK."

When I upgrade my desktop, it'll be

A) because the current one has died.
B) Every web page known to man suddenly begins running Java 1000 with full streaming 3d video, and only supports the newest Decacore computers running a terabyte of RAM.
C) Someone says, "Hey, I just upgraded to Windows 9000, running Java 1000, 69.2 Decacore, and 6 terabytes of RAM....would you like my old one?"

Yet, while my knowledge of mobile phones, rooting, roming, flashing, and reloading grew exponentially, my vision of how a desktop should be used, was pretty bland and totally vanilla.

I missed the excitement the first time I got that, now expired Emachine and finally ditched dialup for full high-speed cable internet access. Watching videos was fun and they didn't take 10 minutes to load. I could watch the latest TV show online, or, with the right software, download it to my hard drive and watch it at my convenience. Then, there was the explosion of Youtube ability to stream complete movies through Netflix. I had the hardware, I had the software, and that big Broadband pipe allowing me to do things I could never dream of with dialup on a 56K modem.

Fast forward to 13 months ago, when I was planning a vacation and my beloved Broadband went down. After just purchasing PdaNet a month before, I connected my phone to my desktop and was back in business. My DX had become vessel to bring internet access to other devices.

A few months later, I was getting ready to take that vacation, and I bought a cheap netbook, upgraded the Ram from 1 to 2 GB, and took off Windows 7 Home Edition and installed XP Professional because it had more functionality when compared to the limitations of the Home edition and I didn’t see the value of paying for Windows 7 Professional when surfing, streaming or running basic office applications.

While not an exact clone of my desktop, when combined with my DX and PdaNet, it allowed me the freedom to enjoy the same basic internet experience when traveling, that I do at home.

Of course, now that so many of the common desktop programs have found life with Android, I don't even use my netbook as much except when I'm traveling and need to run something that is compatible with Windows only and requires a full keyboard.

If and when Android becomes more stable and functional on my bargain basement 32 GB HP Touchpad, I may even find myself using my desktop and netbook less and less, though, I haven't used it much recently; the price was too good to pass up and I wanted a new toy.

At this point, my desktop, netbook, and touchpad can or will have (after the HP becomes fully Android capable) the ability to give me the same internet experience, regardless of RAM, hardware, graphics card, build quality. They are all fine for surfing, streaming Netflix, rendering any office or basic oracle application.

They really only differ in portability and hard drive space. My desktop has more, the touchpad less, but all can provide me with the same basic internet experience. The only X factor is the type of internet connection I am using at the time with the device. However, assuming the data connection is the same with each device, my basic “everyday” internet experience will be the same.

When it comes to mobile devices, it’ll definitely be nice to upgrade. My DX on 3g is like my old Compaq on dialup. It can browse the Internet but with a little bigger pipe and better hardware, I should be able to take the mobile experience to the next level.

However the biggest reason I am getting the Nexus, as I’m sure most are, and what sets it apart from all other devices available on Verizon is that it will truly be an open device and have better software. Not only will it be running the best software, it’ll have hardware specifically optimized to run it.


Software is one of the reasons I have still been able to manage with my DX. As of now, the opening of the Amazon app store and it’s many free and discounted applications have allowed me to significantly expand the way I use my device. Subsonic, Zumocast, and any of the many Remote Desktop apps (Logmein, Splashtop, Pocketcloud) have allowed me to do things that I previously didn’t think possible with a phone. I am only limited by my RAM, processor, screen, and the speed of my internet connection

In a way, the Nexus could prove to be a mobile awakening when compared to my DX. It will have better hardware (RAM, processor, bigger and clearer screen), better software, better potential for future software applications to be developed without the restrictions of other devices, better integration and optimization for the hardware and software to interact with each other, and support for a much, much faster data connection when available.

It’ll truly be a phenomenal phone when released. However, I also have a certain amount of trepidation that it could make future upgrades obsolete for me.

Pages and videos will stream quicker due to the better hardware, and, when I get 4g on a daily basis, I fully expect the difference to be as tremendous as it was when I first got cable broadband. However, any 4G phone on 4g will probably make any standard 3G phone seem like dialup.

Software aside, all the newer phones will have the ability to stream equally well and render web pages equally well. I don’t really expect a 1.2 gigahurtz processor to render a web page significantly faster than a 1.5 gigahurtz processor on 4g or on 3g, all things being equal. All the newer phones have 1 MB RAM too and I really wonder if even a phone with 2 GB RAM, or even 4, will make a huge difference when doing basic internet (surfing, Netflix, Slacker Radio, basic office-type software) activities. From that perspective, any of the new 4G phones will be fine for most things, and provided web developers don’t begin redesigning their websites significantly, programmers don’t totally redefine the word processor, excel spreadsheet, or other mundane office app, any phone I get now should be fine in the future, and to a certain extent that disappoints me.

Assuming Verizon leaves the basic fundamentals of a Nexus in tact (no OEM skins, open and easily unlocked bootloader, minimal bloat) will any future VZW Nexus release really make that much of a difference? Will any future Nexus with an unlocked bootloader, running pure android be more open than the Galaxy Nexus we’ll be getting shortly?

I have to wonder if phones will begin to level off in terms of significance for the average user. Radio performance may vary a little with phones in the future, just as it does now, but call clarity will still be heavily dependent on the strength of the signal and the environment one is in when the call is made. I doubt any newer phone will be able to make calls and surf the internet in areas where our current phones cannot.

Any ability to change that, lies solely with the network provider. Do I expect my mobile service to improve? Sure, but only to the point that Verizon works to improve and expand the network, not whether I have a HTC, Motorola, Samsung, or Nexus, device.

I am hoping that there will be a significant improvement with battery technology that will affect all phones, but that remains to be seen and certainly won’t have anything do with whether it is a Nexus or not. Still, I have my doubts as well. A few more hours without plugging in would be nice, but I doubt the battery life of any future phone will improve to the point where people still aren’t charging their device once every 1 or 2 days, certainly a week seems out of the question.

When it comes to build quality, I’m a little biased, and was concerned that Samsung had designed this phone. I like my DX and enjoy the feel of the device. It’s solid and I appreciate how it has some weight to it when I hold it in my hand. Going a step further, I look at Motorola the same way I look at Ford, Chrysler, and GM. They’re an American company with a rich technological and cellular tradition and even though they’ve outsourced some of their production overseas and split their company into two separate divisions, I get a little bit patriotic when I see Motorola equipment on every football field, on many police and firefighters, and emergency personnel.

Well, someday, Motorola, may get that chance to design a future Nexus, but I’ve gotten over that hurdle and am no longer concerned. Why, because I’ve had many Samsung electronics over the years as well and know they also have a strong technological tradition, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Yes, that means having to accept that our Nexus may be more plastic than metal, but I can live with that since I’ve come to realize that durability and build quality, just aren’t that important when it comes to a smartphone.

It’s cheap entertainment to watch these drop test videos on Youtube and those taking keys to the screen in an effort to mar its pristine condition. The truth is that cement, water, excessive heat, and blunt objects have been mortal enemies to all phones, even before they became portable and could talk.

When the Droid Razr was released, I thought the kevlar backing was cool and was secretly hoping that I’d login to this forum and see the new vid of Jerry using it to deflect bullets ala ‘Matrix’ style or some Eastwood wannabe screaming ‘Hello Moto. Make my day.’ as he emptied a clip at point blank range. However, these are phones and this is the real world.

In terms of true durability and build quality, I would even argue that mobile devices have taken a huge step backwards. Take the original Razr or any candy bar phone from the last 6 years and it could smoke the Droid Razr, Rezound, and Iphone put together in any drop test. Wanna stick one in water and see who wins? They may all lose, but I’d still put my money on the dumb phone when it comes to true durability. As phones have become “smarter” they’ve lost their ability to take a true beating

So, I have little faith that any future device will be anymore durable than our beloved Nexus. Take any phone, regardless of type, manufacturer, or IQ level and drop it on cement, in a puddle, in the toilet, leave it in the glove box ion a 100+ degree day, or on top of your car, as you pull out of the driveway. There will always be the possibility that the device will sustain damage.

Maybe in the future we’ll be rocking Titanium backup on a phone made of pure titanium, with a screen forged from a real diamond, as we swim with the dolphins, while snapping pictures from our 99 + infinity megapixel cameras, but I doubt it.

No doubt, we’ll still be reading the same stories 10 years from now about phones meeting their unfortunate demise from concrete, a toilet, or an enterprising and precocious two year old or German Shepherd. .

For now, I’ll carry my wunderkind in a case most of the time, but not always, and keep insurance for piece of mind, since I know it will never be invincible. I’ll appreciate my plastic champion and still exercise reasonable care and caution when using it. Hopefully, those in the future will to.

When it comes to our baby’s screen, she will truly be a pleasure to behold. At 4.65” and 1280 x 720 pixels, I can’t wait to fire up Netflix and make a quick comparison with my DX. I’m expecting the difference to be easily noticed and profound. Yet, looking toward the future, I’m also concerned that future devices will never measure up.

The Nexus will have a slightly bigger and clearer screen compared to other phones, but I doubt future phones will have a screen that is significantly bigger than our Nexus. I would gladly get a 5” or even a 7” phone if such a thing ever existed. My mobile unlimited data plan is by far more favorable than what the carriers ever offered for a tablet. However, I have to believe that the Nexus may be have reached the upper echelon in terms of size, 2nd to the Samsung Note, and may have the largest phone screen on VZW for years to come. There are even those on this forum that have chided Samsung for making our baby too big.

In regards to screen clarity, there may be a phone with more pixels and better resolution in the future, but people will still have the same retinas, and lenses, they have now. How soon before any future mobile hardware reaches a point where the human “hardware” is unable to really notice and appreciate it?

However, there is perhaps a bright spot when we look toward the future of mobile devices. No doubt, the RAM and the processor will continue their climb upward. The dual cores will eventually give way to the quad cores, which, over time, give way to something better. RAM will increase from 1 GB to 2, from 3 GB to 4, and so on. On one hand that excites me, but I could really care less.

But I’m just a Neanderthal that likes to stream, surf, check the stocks and sports scores, visit facebook, and write long-winded dissertations on an electronic device that many don’t even know exists.

Two groups, in particular, may reap the benefits of quad core and beyond---the gamer and the graphic designer. I’m not one, but I have friends that are. They make full use of their desktops and laptops with their RAM and multi-core Nvidia-enhanced processors.
I can only imagine the lust they may feel when a quad core + cellular phone with many gigabytes of RAM becomes standard. Yet, I also have to wonder if they too, will eventually be in the depths of despair.

While desktops and laptops, and even tablets may benefit from the spectral climb, how many true enthusiasts will ever use their phone as their primary gaming device. It just doesn’t seam practical or anymore realistic than if Ebert traded in his 60” flatscreen for the next Nexus incarnation. Certain activities will never be able to gain the appreciation on a phone that they will in other mediums.

So, as we wait for our precious Galaxy Nexus, we should all enjoy it and relish in the anticipation since it’ll be clear that future cellular phones will neither be more durable or truly warrant the technological arms raise that Motorola, Samsung, HTC, and LG, will no doubt continue. The outlook may remain bleak when it comes to the future of cellular phones and how they are utilized by the average consumer, much like traditional desktop before it.

I realize that any future upgrades I shall endure may never have the significance of my Galaxy Nexus, at least not until Verizon upgrades to 5G and beyond, whatever and whenever that may be, and battery technology improves exponentially. It could be years before either makes a significant impact.

However, I’m not completely pessimistic. While I have my doubts about just how much further a smartphone can go, I pray that there will always be those that will push the limits, even if the end result makes no practical sense in a phone.

When “Weird Al’ Yankovic released his Alapalooza album, one of my favorite songs was “Frank’s 2000” TV” because it seemed so ridiculous at the time that anyone would ever need to “Watch the Simpsons from 30 blocks away.” Yet, fast forward 15 years and it was finally brought to fruition after the construction of Cowboys Stadium. And, while a 2000” TV still seems excessive, it doesn’t seem as ridiculous now and may even be practical, depending on the venue.

Even if titanium smartphones with centi-core processors and diamond screens never become mainstream, it’d be cool to see a drop-test from the Empire State Building or scratch test with a sledge hammer, and milli-processors may someday become part of everyday life even if we aren’t rocking them in our smartphones 20 years from now.

The Galaxy Nexus with it’s 4.65 screen, running pure Android ICS, with 4G, running on arguably the best mobile network in America may be my most significant upgrade for quite some time. And while the VZW Nexus 2 may fail to push the envelope or bring anything truly groundbreaking to the mobile experience of many, I’ll still give it a look, even if it’s only sequentially superior.
 
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thedeceiver

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Didn't this story start with "it was the best of times.... "

I think that was the longest post I have ever seen on this forum.

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gnipeh

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You just won AC prize in literature.... I only got to "However, that got me thinking" before checking how long it is and gave up...

You know, 140 char was invented for a reason in a time of short attention span
 

Scout_313

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What comes after the Galaxy Nexus? Hopefully I won't care for quite a while as I'd love to break the habit of needing (well, more wanting) a new device every couple of months. It sure can get expensive.
 

Xephik

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tl;dr

Its a phone. It'll run all everything awesome for the next year and a half (Probably two). Welcome to the tech world.
 

Android32

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Aaaand the winner of the post of the month goes to..... :-0 I think maybe the person who wrote this post should write a book. "Life After the Galaxy Nexus" Technology is definitely progressing more and more.... Looking fwd to the 4.0 update myself. Ok, that's all I have.

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