Cloud storage.
Sure, you can't use it when you don't have coverage, but I have coverage 98% of the time. And I've never seen files getting corrupted or experienced data loss with the cloud.
Nexus 4 vs S4
- Thread starter Zendroid1
- Start date
Cloud storage.
Sure, you can't use it when you don't have coverage, but I have coverage 98% of the time. And I've never seen files getting corrupted or experienced data loss with the cloud.
If you're only looking for a stock android phone to just be a short term gap filler until the Nexus 5 comes out I think you've answered your own question. Unless you're quite comfortable spending $650 plus tax for a short term phone.
- Aug 22, 2011
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Well I'm due for an upgrade at AT&T so I could get the regular S4 for $199 or the N4 for $299 or the S4GE for $649. I do plan on getting the N5 when it comes out regardless of cost. I almost think my best bet would be to get the regular S4 for $199 and root it. But the N4 is so pretty.
In that case I think the question you need to ask yourself now is "do I like the s4 enough to use my upgrade on it and go through the unlocking and root and ROM process for the short term". Only you can answer that question because in the end the answer lies in your own personal preference and taste
That stick out of the phone like a cancerous tumor. No thanks...that is not an acceptable solution IMO. Aside from aesthetics, it will make the phone difficult to use while it is plugged in.
Same issue. None of these things will be available 24/7 like SD is.
Also...all of these solutions could be used in ADDITION to SD anyway. That is like saying a great solution to power windows on your car is to use power locks instead.
As has been pointed out many many times, the cloud is not always there, and even when it is, it's speeds are not consistently high. Good luck using the cloud when you are in the mountains taking vacation video.
So your response seems to indicate that I was correct in my implication that nothing exists to effectively replace SD. There is nothing as cheap or convenient or ubiquitous.
Because Wifi is available everywhere, right? LOL
I do not mean to mock, but this "solution" is no solution at all. For me the cloud is useful as a backup, but thats it. I can tell you from personal experience it is close to useless for relying on for everyday use. And this is from a Verizon customer...the other carriers are worse. My gym does not have wifi...neither do most places. Half the places that do have it require a passowrd or signup or some other hassle. It is not something that is available on the road or out of the city often.
with SD, larger internal storage is not required. Thats the whole point. You do not have to pay a fortune for storage you might or might not use...you can just add it as you need it.
Correct. There is a really good reason no one has invented a better wheel.
Until a better solution is developed, there is no reason to take away SD. Refusing to buy SD phones is going to do nothing but inconvenience the buyer. If a better solution can be had, a competitor will use it and steal Samsung's business. Right?
When it becomes available, We can start sealing up batteries. Till then, I would like removable batteries.
So, using that logic, we should stop buying phones with 720p...otherwise what is the incentive for companies to go to 1080p?
Your logic does not seem to be working anyway...for years I refused to buy phones without SD or removable batteries, yet Google and HTC went in that direction anyway.
It is ironic that you talk about bandaid solutions when you just told me I should use the less convenient thumb drives and external drives in place of SD> How is that not a bandaid solution? How is that innovation?
Well said Jeff! Nothing can replace the convenience of SD and removable battery yet
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
I just thought of a great solution for people whom absolutely must have a sd slot in their phone. Don't buy the N4. Buy a phone that has one. Lol.
- Aug 22, 2011
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Since I only want a phone to get me by until the N5 I think I might give the S4 a chance. One last question before I pull the trigger.
Does the N4 have any advantages over the S4 in terms of customizing and doing themes like those seen on mycolorscreen? Please excuse my Android ignorance!
Does the N4 have any advantages over the S4 in terms of customizing and doing themes like those seen on mycolorscreen? Please excuse my Android ignorance!
Clearly for you, and a handful of other people, SD cards ARE the most ideal solution for multiple reasons like the unavailability of the cloud in the mountains, etc. I'm not saying people shouldn't want them, I'm saying Google has already moved forward with their plan to eliminate that tech from their platform and thus we should all be finding smarter ways to do business. Because of the limitations that both you and I have described, with SD cards (no apps to SD, failing cards, requires compromises in engineering, etc), external wireless drives (not sure why this wouldn't be available 24/7, but I'll take your word for it), etc. the most ideal solution can only be a combination of better access to cloud services and much greater improved internal storage.
I think as tech enthusiasts we think our paradigm applies to more people than it does. Most consumers do not know what an SD card is and many that do, would have no idea how that would relate to their phone, let alone how to swap them out, etc. Depending on data source, less than 2-5% of Android users root and we all know that most people don't troubleshoot things, they replace them. I do understand the appeal of SD cards to some people and I'm not saying that appeal is wrong; what I am saying is that the SD card train already left the station. All of the tech enthusiasts combined doing one thing to try to shape OEM development ... will accomplish little to nothing. We're by far a minority. I see comments on both sides of the SD card and removable battery argument all the time in comments of tech articles and in forums, but I've never heard someone who isn't sure how to uninstall an app mention SD cards at all. I'm sure, like me, you're constantly showing people things their phone can do that they had no idea about. That's where word of mouth campaigns come in. We can petition the manufacturers directly, but they won't listen. The only other choice is to get people excited about things and talking to their friends, etc. and using the only power we actually do have, the ability to vote with dollars.
I'm not trying to attack you and I've stated in here and in other threads where you go on about SD cards that I agree a more comprehensive solution should have been released first. What I'm trying to do is give information that helps readers bridge the gap between dying tech (SD cards) and their want to carry their entire music/photo/video library with them at all times. Some users have hundreds of gigs of stuff that they want to be on their phone and no 16GB device can touch it. I'm not saying that the existing solutions fit for everyone, I'm saying they help and that we should be pushing for better.
By this do you mean most people don't have free access to the cloud, or that they don't have a data signal a majority of the time? I think it'd be rare (less than 1%) to find people that go a day without seeing a 3G, 4G or wifi connection on their device (other than in airplane mode or, as in the example before, hiking far from civilization). Otherwise, that's a great reason to switch carriers to one who has solid service throughout your areas of habitation and travel. The key to using the cloud is that you don't have to be hooked into it 24/7, you just have to use it to sync. Streaming music is expensive for some people and free for others. While that is wrong in and of itself, obviously those being charged for it would be wiser to plan ahead and pin their music library while connected to wifi.
Someone forgot to tell Apple. How many years now? How many iPhones sold over the years.
He is claiming full cloud access 98% of the time. That is not normal for anyone I know.
Most people I know get 4G most of the time, but not at full speed. When I had Verizon in a major city (downtown Denver) I often got 3G or even 1X. That was common with friends and relatives as well. 4G was certainly fast enough most of the time, but was in no way a replacement for local storage. And was certainly not working 98% of the time at full capacity.
With T-Mobile it is worse.
Verizon is as good as it gets here, and they are still insufficient. My SD card will always be more available than the best 4G.
Then the cloud is an insufficient replacement for SD. That was my point.
If I want to access my content, why should I have to be at the mercy of the cloud? The MP3 library on my SD is accessible to me 24/7. Streaming is accessible to me only when I have cloud access. How is wifi a solution? My gym doesn't have wifi, and that probably applies to many (most) businesses. How is wifi gonna let me listen to my music on the road?
Clearly it is not merely a handful of people. Most people who are asked, would rather have SD than not. The people who would explicitly NOT want SD are the minority.
Google was wrong to do that. And their endorsement of the Google S4 is an indication they might be finally coming to their senses.
I have seen no statements from them that they have any plans to phase out SD from Android.
SD is already a solution to internal storage. SD will not prevent you from using cloud services.
I have never met a single person online or in real life who would prefer not having SD. At best, it is a compromise they accept....but the lack of SD is never seen as an asset.
They would know that one phone has more "GBs" than another. They just would not know why.
I don't think stock Android does. But many ROMs do. You would have to install a custom ROM to get that. Many custom launchers will let you do that as well (Nova launcher comes to mind).
I only have about 4,000 songs in Google Music (well, before all access, now it's millions I guess) but I only have about 200 pinned to my device. I was saying you can download to your device over wifi for free. I don't stream music over LTE other than when I'm driving, and even then sometimes I just play what's on my phone. Otherwise, I stream all access over my home/work wifi. My usage case is very different from yours and both of ours are different than the people who want to have 200,000 songs and hundreds of videos with them at all times.
I'm in small town Iowa and LTE is available throughout except it's not great inside some buildings. Most businesses (here, not everywhere obviously) have wifi, but they're the weird kind where they want you to log in, and I never use random access points without knowing who owns it. Some places still charge for using their wifi. I agree 100% that the cloud is not the most ideal solution by itself, and definitely not for everyone. For me, it's 100% effective and I'd agree with a 98% up-time figure like whoever said they have that. It might not be typical, but there are definitely people/places that are well connected for the vast majority of their time.
Also agree that not having a feature is not a selling point. As for Google's attitude, obviously it's hard to know exactly what they're doing other than from what they've said, but they were clear in both action and statement that SD cards were the way of the past. This could easily be just like the button configurations, where they want the platform to do one thing, and certain OEM's continually ignore the standards and do whatever they want. Them agreeing to sell the S4 is not backtracking, it's obviously a win-win for Samsung and Google for consumers to have more options.
It's obvious that if you ask someone if they want a feature, they will answer in the affirmative, even if they don't know what it is. You could do the same thing, "should phones have Ethernet ports?", most people will say yes because they have no idea what an Ethernet port is, nor how it would be useful/useless on a phone and having an option is always better than not having an option. I also don't know anyone who would pass on a device because it has an SD card. I do know people who would pass on a device because it has a menu button, despite it having an SD card. Conversely, there are many people who will not buy any device that does not have an SD card.
It's obvious that if you ask someone if they want a feature, they will answer in the affirmative, even if they don't know what it is. You could do the same thing, "should phones have Ethernet ports?", most people will say yes because they have no idea what an Ethernet port is, nor how it would be useful/useless on a phone and having an option is always better than not having an option. I also don't know anyone who would pass on a device because it has an SD card. I do know people who would pass on a device because it has a menu button, despite it having an SD card. Conversely, there are many people who will not buy any device that does not have an SD card.
I agree those people exist.l I do not agree that it is the norm.
What do you do if you want to listen to something that is not one of the 200 songs you pinned to your device? The only time lack of SD is acceptable is if you can live with those limitations.
If I want something that's not in the 200, such as everything in All Access, it streams either via wifi or LTE. Both are "free" and unlimited. For people who those last two things are not true, or who are not connected at all, they'd have to be much more proactive about syncing playlists. I personally don't want to deal with having to choose music every day, or week or even once a month, so I use streaming. Your answer to the same problem is SD cards. There is nothing wrong with either approach, assuming they work, today. My argument is entirely based on the idea that 5 years from now, if SD cards don't exist (and we do have good reason to believe they will not exist, but the timing is not clear), how are we going to solve the same problem? If people are paying per GB, I hate the idea of people spending money to listen to their own music.... so what's the solution in the future?
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