7 ms·

Galaxy Nexus OS Variant Not Controlled By Google

46 points by techiediy 15y ago

stanleydrew 15y ago
Damn it Google. I thought I could count on you not to mess this up. I want to be able to tell my mom that she should get a galaxy nexus and not have to worry. Now I have to track down a GSM edition from abroad that has a particular software build on it? You're not making this very easy.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
  - beatle 15y ago
    Or buy an iPhone 4S. No worries. No hassles. Seriously.
    - shinratdr 15y ago
      I don't know why you're being downvoted. This is exactly what you should do. Rewarding the current system Google has by removing bloatware from a damn phone (a crazy concept to begin with) and spending extra to get a phone that updates in a timely fashion is horrible. I guarantee you, your mom could not care less about whatever qualms you may have with Apple. She would much prefer the phone that can run everything you expect it to run, gets timely updates and doesn't come full of bloatware. Giving her an Android device when you know it's not right for the job is like giving her a Bible when she asks for a specific cheesy book. Whatever the reasons you don't like the book, you're just pushing your preferences on her over what you know she would prefer.
      - deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
      - stanleydrew 15y ago
        My mom has been an Android user for almost three years now. She doesn't want to switch. She wants a new phone and she wants it to be mostly like her old one, i.e. the unadulterated Nexus One. She comes to me for recommendations. I want to recommend her the Galaxy Nexus, but I don't see how I can. The iPhone is not an option. Hence my frustration.
        shinratdr 15y ago
        She picked Android three years ago of her own volition without you pushing it on her, yet she owns a Nexus One, a phone almost exclusively purchased by geeks? I somehow doubt that. > she comes to me for recommendations Then you know exactly who to blame for your current predicament.
    - ypcx 15y ago
      The fact that if I buy a 64 GB iPhone, then I have to dedicate half of my 128 GB Macbook Pro's SSD just to keep a duplicate of the media on the iPhone (iTunes Library) that I only use on the phone - is a total deal-breaker for me as far as iPhone goes. Another absolute deal-breaker is that I don't have a credit card - for online stuff I use debit cards from Payoneer and Moneybookers - and these are not accepted by the iTunes shop, and I won't bother with gift certificates. So Android it is. I also love the fact that as a C and Java coder, I can easily change every single thing in the system, should I really want to (OK except the baseband and few other things). All things considered, I think Google is doing extremely good.
      - beatle 15y ago
        I can easily change every single thing in the system, should I really want to Ok why don't you start removing Verizon's bloatware on this Nexus phone.
        shinratdr 15y ago
        I love this. We all know he doesn't actually want to change the filesystem, won't do so, and frankly can't. However, Google's marketing and public line insists that he can, so he can, and this erroneous belief actually helps shape his purchasing decision. This is a good lesson to keep in mind when encountering programmer-types that are arrogant enough to insist they are never swayed by marketing. Truth is, very little marketing targets them. When it does, it works just as effectively as it does with everyone else.
        jrockway 15y ago
        I've compiled AOSP from source and use that on my phone. In that case, I have the ability to change everything. The only barrier to this (since there are lots of good downloadable variants of this technique, like CyanogenMod) is being able to flash a new firmware on your phone. In many cases, this is explicitly supported (the Nexus One was a good example), and in the other cases, it's very easy to bypass the carrier's attempt at locking you out of your phone. As long as people keep paying the lowest bidder to write critical software in C, you'll be able to install whatever you want on your phone :)
    - jrockway 15y ago
      The iPhone 4S doesn't run Android software very well.
      - beatle 15y ago
        I feel sorry for you.
        jrockway 15y ago
        Thanks, that means a lot to me. (FWIW, Locale is the application I find most useful. My cell phone never makes noise in public.)
        beatle 15y ago
        I feel sorry for you.
  - SomeCallMeTim 15y ago
    Don't install ad-block unless you hate free apps and/or just like to stick it to the indie developers out there. Not that the standard ad-block techniques will work with my next app anyway, but if everyone blocked ads, there would be no more free apps. [1] [1] Google Categorical Imperative if you're not familiar with the term.
    - emu 15y ago
      I'll make a deal with you. If you don't put flash or animations in your ads then I won't try to block them. For Verizon and Google: let me remove bloatware from your phones, or I won't buy them. Pity; I was actually going to look into the Galaxy Nexus whenever it comes out. Seems fair all round to me.
      - jerrya 15y ago
        Me too. I had done my research and found the T-Mobile plan, and a Galaxy Nexus seller, but now, jeez louise. The number one best feature of my Nexus One is that it is pure Google Experience. I can justify the outrageous amount of money I spent on that based on the ease and frequency of OS updates. Just when I thought I was back in, they push me back out. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU)
      - SomeCallMeTim 15y ago
        So...if the ads are so unobtrusive that you don't see them then you won't block them? More than a third of my current income is derived from "interstitials": After you play the game for a while, you have to watch something to continue. You don't like that, you buy the game (for a dollar!) and you get no ads. THAT's the deal. You don't like it, you don't play the game.
    - orangecat 15y ago
      Also, no going to the bathroom or talking to your family during commercials. if everyone blocked ads, there would be no more free apps. If nobody blocked ads, we'd still be bombarded with popups and flash ads on every site.
- danilocampos 15y ago
  It's not meant to be. Google has sold their users down the river, including letting Verizon disable Wallet, in exchange for a piece of the action in mobile. So they can keep having a relevant platform for their ads. It's been a mostly sharp move, but it wasn't done for reasons of user experience. And it shows with stuff like this. I wish they would take a harder line – enforce higher standards, fight the good fight on NFC. But that's not what they're after. Every phone that ships without Android, or a Google-free flavor of Android, is one more point where they can be left out in the cold when something like Siri comes along. So as long as they can get most of what they want from these manufacturing partners, they'll take it.
  - alexbell 15y ago
    This. User experience is not a real driver for Android, and never has been. It only has to be "good enough". It's open, which I applaud. But you are overly optimistic if you thought publicly traded billion+ dollar carriers and manufacturers weren't eventually going to subvert this. If I understand correctly, the premiere Google handset is not going to ship with a premiere Google product. In fact, with Google's acquiescence it is going to be actively blocked. Google will bow down to carriers in an effort to maximize their ad dollars.
    - georgemcbay 15y ago
      The problem isn't that Google is letting carriers (and hardware manufacturers) mess with Android -- they were always free to make Android phones with bloatware and restrictions. What Google (supposedly?) did here that was destructive was let them them mess with a Nexus branded Android phone. No matter how you slice it, marketing value will be lost if this story is true because this will cause the Nexus tag to mean nothing to those who it was originally created to court.
      - fpgeek 15y ago
        I think it really depends on what "this story" is. If the story is that there are local variations on the Galaxy Nexus, well, duh, of course there are! At the very least there will localization differences, regulatory differences (e.g. WiFi channels allowed) and the like, even for a Nexus. To me, the real question is whether or not anything has changed about the defining attributes of a Nexus phone: (a) prompt updates (b) "fastboot oem unlock" Note: I'd add "no bloatware" but given the controversy over the Verizon apps and having come across a developer who considered Gmail bloat (on an Android phone!), I've given up on having a meaningful discussion about it.
- rst 15y ago
  It's apparently messier than that --- the imported GSM phones are showing up with several different builds, only one of which is the official Google version. (And some of the variant builds are not getting official Google updates, most notably for the "volume bug" that was reported on early shipped units.) It seems to be possible to reflash the official Google build onto units that shipped with some of the variants (some xda-forum posters have reported success), but it might pay to wait a few days for this to settle out before ordering if you're really worried about this. http://www.xda-developers.com/android/is-the-galaxy-nexus-still-a-nexus/ http://www.xda-developers.com/android/is-the-galaxy-nexus-st...
  - tesseract 15y ago
    I have an imported GSM Galaxy Nexus. It updated itself to ITL41F which, to my understanding, is the build that fixes the volume bug. Out of curiosity, is there a straightforward (i.e. without unlocking the bootloader) way to check whether I have a "Google build" or a "Samsung build"?
    - snotrockets 15y ago
      Look at the build fingerprint -- it contains the name of the software configuration. Yakju is Google's (ref: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/android-building/Ld5FoFinN7k/bDfZo_eFwZkJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/android-building/Ld5FoFinN7k...) To get the build fignerprint, use adb to cat /system/build.prop, or getprop ro.build.fingerprint
jinushaun 15y ago
In other words, can the Verizon Galaxy Nexus even be considered a "Nexus" anymore? The article implies "no."
- snotrockets 15y ago
  According to the twitter conversation linked in a message here (http://twitter.theinfo.org/146020135109533696, http://twitter.theinfo.org/146020135109533696,) mysid, which is the Verizon GN is built by Google, like yakju (the Google GSM build,) and unlike yakju.+ (which are built by Samsung)
technogeek00 15y ago
So in these builds are they going to disable the ICS feature to disable programs, like the crap-ware Verizon shoves on the phones.
RandallBrown 15y ago
Why can't Google or Samsung push out the updates? Is it just that Verizon won't let them? I guess it takes the selling power of the iPhone to ink a deal like that with Verizon.
old-gregg 15y ago
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc: http://bit.ly/5xgJcA http://bit.ly/5xgJcA We need this to happen to: * All wireless carriers and their practice of locking phones * Apple/Amazon with their "stores" tied to their devices
- canes123456 15y ago
  I am not sure I see the connection with that case.
- nknight 15y ago
  Companies in a given market sharing many of the same practices does not automatically violate the Sherman Act, nor does vertical integration by a non-monopoly or non-coercive monopoly.
  - old-gregg 15y ago
    Doesn't it bother you that there is only 1 retailer in the world who sells software for the iPhone? It is very possible that 3-5 years from now literally every byte of information flowing to our portable devices will be 100% controlled (or approved) by the big 3: Google, Apple and Amazon. Wintel domination pales in comparison. P.S. In my comment above I used wireless carriers but forgot Google. In reality they all try to do the same thing: google/apple/amazon are using the platform, while carriers are using the pipe, but in the end they all want to own the whole enchilada.
    - nknight 15y ago
      Lots of things bother me, that doesn't necessarily mean I think they should be illegal. Laws affect society as a whole, that means they should be made carefully and with restraint, and applied in the same way, because there's a lot of variation within society as to what is viewed as right or wrong. I don't like that iOS is as closed as it is, but I do have other choices. Apple is not a monopoly, they don't control the market, they didn't make it more closed, or less consumer-friendly. On the contrary, they're directly responsible for the smartphone market's rapid advance, and a renewed focus on the needs and wants of end-users. In other words, your call for an antitrust case against Apple, besides being a serious perversion of antitrust law, is proposing to harm Apple for the good they've done for consumers. What kind of sense does that make? Certain markets have long been dominated by a handful of large companies. That's always been the case with telecommunications and consumer electronics, and to some extent, it will probably always be the case. On the other hand, technological advancements, some of which came out of these very companies you're vilifying, have made it more practical for smaller players to enter markets that have had prohibitive costs of entry. It is increasing competition -- the very goal of antitrust law. Everybody sees the danger of a few large companies controlling a market, that's why the FCC and Department of Justice have been, shall we say, less than receptive to the idea of an AT&T/T-Mobile merger. That doesn't automatically mean that those companies should be torn to shreds because some of us don't like their business model.
tomflack 15y ago
So basically Google just ruined the nexus brand? It was the one constant in Android they'd created that you could supposedly rely on and they just killed it in only the third generation.
- there 15y ago
  i was pretty disappointed with the nexus s as the successor to the nexus one. cheaper-feeling hardware, all plastic instead of rubber and metal, no sd-card expansion (i think that was on purpose to push google's cloud synching), no notification light, and a bigger footprint with no bigger screen resolution.
CountSessine 15y ago
Not a Nexus.
ldesegur 15y ago
What would stop people from removing crapware that VZ enjoy crippling their phones with? I know it's not as easy to remove apps on Android than it is on iOS but still...
joebadmo 15y ago
Here's a conversation on twitter with Jean Baptiste Queru, who works on AOSP for Google. It's not completely illuminating, but there are interesting details: http://twitter.theinfo.org/146020135109533696 http://twitter.theinfo.org/146020135109533696
jarek 15y ago
Somehow, I can't help but think "LOL, Verizon."
ypcx 15y ago
So again, what is the problem when you can "flash" the phone with the OS variant you want? I noticed there already are floating various user builds for Galaxy Nexus. I'm much more worried about the frequent hardware build quality issues that German users are reporting about so much. I hope I won't have to send mine back. Let's stay optimistic!
rpikencal 15y ago
It sure does seem like Verizon likes to add their 2 cents to everything rather than leave it as intended. To have a clean phone without all the bloatware that Verizon adds on would be great.

46 points by techiediy 15y ago

Damn it Google. I thought I could count on you not to mess this up. I want to be able to tell my mom that she should get a galaxy nexus and not have to worry. Now I have to track down a GSM edition from abroad that has a particular software build on it? You're not making this very easy.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
- beatle 15y ago
  Or buy an iPhone 4S. No worries. No hassles. Seriously.
  - shinratdr 15y ago
    I don't know why you're being downvoted. This is exactly what you should do. Rewarding the current system Google has by removing bloatware from a damn phone (a crazy concept to begin with) and spending extra to get a phone that updates in a timely fashion is horrible. I guarantee you, your mom could not care less about whatever qualms you may have with Apple. She would much prefer the phone that can run everything you expect it to run, gets timely updates and doesn't come full of bloatware. Giving her an Android device when you know it's not right for the job is like giving her a Bible when she asks for a specific cheesy book. Whatever the reasons you don't like the book, you're just pushing your preferences on her over what you know she would prefer.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
    - stanleydrew 15y ago
      My mom has been an Android user for almost three years now. She doesn't want to switch. She wants a new phone and she wants it to be mostly like her old one, i.e. the unadulterated Nexus One. She comes to me for recommendations. I want to recommend her the Galaxy Nexus, but I don't see how I can. The iPhone is not an option. Hence my frustration.
      - shinratdr 15y ago
        She picked Android three years ago of her own volition without you pushing it on her, yet she owns a Nexus One, a phone almost exclusively purchased by geeks? I somehow doubt that. > she comes to me for recommendations Then you know exactly who to blame for your current predicament.
  - ypcx 15y ago
    The fact that if I buy a 64 GB iPhone, then I have to dedicate half of my 128 GB Macbook Pro's SSD just to keep a duplicate of the media on the iPhone (iTunes Library) that I only use on the phone - is a total deal-breaker for me as far as iPhone goes. Another absolute deal-breaker is that I don't have a credit card - for online stuff I use debit cards from Payoneer and Moneybookers - and these are not accepted by the iTunes shop, and I won't bother with gift certificates. So Android it is. I also love the fact that as a C and Java coder, I can easily change every single thing in the system, should I really want to (OK except the baseband and few other things). All things considered, I think Google is doing extremely good.
    - beatle 15y ago
      I can easily change every single thing in the system, should I really want to Ok why don't you start removing Verizon's bloatware on this Nexus phone.
      - shinratdr 15y ago
        I love this. We all know he doesn't actually want to change the filesystem, won't do so, and frankly can't. However, Google's marketing and public line insists that he can, so he can, and this erroneous belief actually helps shape his purchasing decision. This is a good lesson to keep in mind when encountering programmer-types that are arrogant enough to insist they are never swayed by marketing. Truth is, very little marketing targets them. When it does, it works just as effectively as it does with everyone else.
        jrockway 15y ago
        I've compiled AOSP from source and use that on my phone. In that case, I have the ability to change everything. The only barrier to this (since there are lots of good downloadable variants of this technique, like CyanogenMod) is being able to flash a new firmware on your phone. In many cases, this is explicitly supported (the Nexus One was a good example), and in the other cases, it's very easy to bypass the carrier's attempt at locking you out of your phone. As long as people keep paying the lowest bidder to write critical software in C, you'll be able to install whatever you want on your phone :)
  - jrockway 15y ago
    The iPhone 4S doesn't run Android software very well.
    - beatle 15y ago
      I feel sorry for you.
      - jrockway 15y ago
        Thanks, that means a lot to me. (FWIW, Locale is the application I find most useful. My cell phone never makes noise in public.)
        beatle 15y ago
        I feel sorry for you.
- SomeCallMeTim 15y ago
  Don't install ad-block unless you hate free apps and/or just like to stick it to the indie developers out there. Not that the standard ad-block techniques will work with my next app anyway, but if everyone blocked ads, there would be no more free apps. [1] [1] Google Categorical Imperative if you're not familiar with the term.
  - emu 15y ago
    I'll make a deal with you. If you don't put flash or animations in your ads then I won't try to block them. For Verizon and Google: let me remove bloatware from your phones, or I won't buy them. Pity; I was actually going to look into the Galaxy Nexus whenever it comes out. Seems fair all round to me.
    - jerrya 15y ago
      Me too. I had done my research and found the T-Mobile plan, and a Galaxy Nexus seller, but now, jeez louise. The number one best feature of my Nexus One is that it is pure Google Experience. I can justify the outrageous amount of money I spent on that based on the ease and frequency of OS updates. Just when I thought I was back in, they push me back out. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU)
    - SomeCallMeTim 15y ago
      So...if the ads are so unobtrusive that you don't see them then you won't block them? More than a third of my current income is derived from "interstitials": After you play the game for a while, you have to watch something to continue. You don't like that, you buy the game (for a dollar!) and you get no ads. THAT's the deal. You don't like it, you don't play the game.
  - orangecat 15y ago
    Also, no going to the bathroom or talking to your family during commercials. if everyone blocked ads, there would be no more free apps. If nobody blocked ads, we'd still be bombarded with popups and flash ads on every site.
danilocampos 15y ago
It's not meant to be. Google has sold their users down the river, including letting Verizon disable Wallet, in exchange for a piece of the action in mobile. So they can keep having a relevant platform for their ads. It's been a mostly sharp move, but it wasn't done for reasons of user experience. And it shows with stuff like this. I wish they would take a harder line – enforce higher standards, fight the good fight on NFC. But that's not what they're after. Every phone that ships without Android, or a Google-free flavor of Android, is one more point where they can be left out in the cold when something like Siri comes along. So as long as they can get most of what they want from these manufacturing partners, they'll take it.
- alexbell 15y ago
  This. User experience is not a real driver for Android, and never has been. It only has to be "good enough". It's open, which I applaud. But you are overly optimistic if you thought publicly traded billion+ dollar carriers and manufacturers weren't eventually going to subvert this. If I understand correctly, the premiere Google handset is not going to ship with a premiere Google product. In fact, with Google's acquiescence it is going to be actively blocked. Google will bow down to carriers in an effort to maximize their ad dollars.
  - georgemcbay 15y ago
    The problem isn't that Google is letting carriers (and hardware manufacturers) mess with Android -- they were always free to make Android phones with bloatware and restrictions. What Google (supposedly?) did here that was destructive was let them them mess with a Nexus branded Android phone. No matter how you slice it, marketing value will be lost if this story is true because this will cause the Nexus tag to mean nothing to those who it was originally created to court.
    - fpgeek 15y ago
      I think it really depends on what "this story" is. If the story is that there are local variations on the Galaxy Nexus, well, duh, of course there are! At the very least there will localization differences, regulatory differences (e.g. WiFi channels allowed) and the like, even for a Nexus. To me, the real question is whether or not anything has changed about the defining attributes of a Nexus phone: (a) prompt updates (b) "fastboot oem unlock" Note: I'd add "no bloatware" but given the controversy over the Verizon apps and having come across a developer who considered Gmail bloat (on an Android phone!), I've given up on having a meaningful discussion about it.
rst 15y ago
It's apparently messier than that --- the imported GSM phones are showing up with several different builds, only one of which is the official Google version. (And some of the variant builds are not getting official Google updates, most notably for the "volume bug" that was reported on early shipped units.) It seems to be possible to reflash the official Google build onto units that shipped with some of the variants (some xda-forum posters have reported success), but it might pay to wait a few days for this to settle out before ordering if you're really worried about this. http://www.xda-developers.com/android/is-the-galaxy-nexus-still-a-nexus/ http://www.xda-developers.com/android/is-the-galaxy-nexus-st...
- tesseract 15y ago
  I have an imported GSM Galaxy Nexus. It updated itself to ITL41F which, to my understanding, is the build that fixes the volume bug. Out of curiosity, is there a straightforward (i.e. without unlocking the bootloader) way to check whether I have a "Google build" or a "Samsung build"?
  - snotrockets 15y ago
    Look at the build fingerprint -- it contains the name of the software configuration. Yakju is Google's (ref: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/android-building/Ld5FoFinN7k/bDfZo_eFwZkJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/android-building/Ld5FoFinN7k...) To get the build fignerprint, use adb to cat /system/build.prop, or getprop ro.build.fingerprint

jinushaun 15y ago

In other words, can the Verizon Galaxy Nexus even be considered a "Nexus" anymore? The article implies "no."

snotrockets 15y ago
According to the twitter conversation linked in a message here (http://twitter.theinfo.org/146020135109533696, http://twitter.theinfo.org/146020135109533696,) mysid, which is the Verizon GN is built by Google, like yakju (the Google GSM build,) and unlike yakju.+ (which are built by Samsung)

technogeek00 15y ago

So in these builds are they going to disable the ICS feature to disable programs, like the crap-ware Verizon shoves on the phones.

RandallBrown 15y ago

Why can't Google or Samsung push out the updates? Is it just that Verizon won't let them? I guess it takes the selling power of the iPhone to ink a deal like that with Verizon.

old-gregg 15y ago

United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc: http://bit.ly/5xgJcA http://bit.ly/5xgJcA We need this to happen to: * All wireless carriers and their practice of locking phones * Apple/Amazon with their "stores" tied to their devices

canes123456 15y ago
I am not sure I see the connection with that case.
nknight 15y ago
Companies in a given market sharing many of the same practices does not automatically violate the Sherman Act, nor does vertical integration by a non-monopoly or non-coercive monopoly.
- old-gregg 15y ago
  Doesn't it bother you that there is only 1 retailer in the world who sells software for the iPhone? It is very possible that 3-5 years from now literally every byte of information flowing to our portable devices will be 100% controlled (or approved) by the big 3: Google, Apple and Amazon. Wintel domination pales in comparison. P.S. In my comment above I used wireless carriers but forgot Google. In reality they all try to do the same thing: google/apple/amazon are using the platform, while carriers are using the pipe, but in the end they all want to own the whole enchilada.
  - nknight 15y ago
    Lots of things bother me, that doesn't necessarily mean I think they should be illegal. Laws affect society as a whole, that means they should be made carefully and with restraint, and applied in the same way, because there's a lot of variation within society as to what is viewed as right or wrong. I don't like that iOS is as closed as it is, but I do have other choices. Apple is not a monopoly, they don't control the market, they didn't make it more closed, or less consumer-friendly. On the contrary, they're directly responsible for the smartphone market's rapid advance, and a renewed focus on the needs and wants of end-users. In other words, your call for an antitrust case against Apple, besides being a serious perversion of antitrust law, is proposing to harm Apple for the good they've done for consumers. What kind of sense does that make? Certain markets have long been dominated by a handful of large companies. That's always been the case with telecommunications and consumer electronics, and to some extent, it will probably always be the case. On the other hand, technological advancements, some of which came out of these very companies you're vilifying, have made it more practical for smaller players to enter markets that have had prohibitive costs of entry. It is increasing competition -- the very goal of antitrust law. Everybody sees the danger of a few large companies controlling a market, that's why the FCC and Department of Justice have been, shall we say, less than receptive to the idea of an AT&T/T-Mobile merger. That doesn't automatically mean that those companies should be torn to shreds because some of us don't like their business model.

tomflack 15y ago

So basically Google just ruined the nexus brand? It was the one constant in Android they'd created that you could supposedly rely on and they just killed it in only the third generation.

there 15y ago
i was pretty disappointed with the nexus s as the successor to the nexus one. cheaper-feeling hardware, all plastic instead of rubber and metal, no sd-card expansion (i think that was on purpose to push google's cloud synching), no notification light, and a bigger footprint with no bigger screen resolution.

CountSessine 15y ago

Not a Nexus.

ldesegur 15y ago

What would stop people from removing crapware that VZ enjoy crippling their phones with? I know it's not as easy to remove apps on Android than it is on iOS but still...

joebadmo 15y ago

Here's a conversation on twitter with Jean Baptiste Queru, who works on AOSP for Google. It's not completely illuminating, but there are interesting details: http://twitter.theinfo.org/146020135109533696 http://twitter.theinfo.org/146020135109533696

jarek 15y ago

Somehow, I can't help but think "LOL, Verizon."

ypcx 15y ago

So again, what is the problem when you can "flash" the phone with the OS variant you want? I noticed there already are floating various user builds for Galaxy Nexus. I'm much more worried about the frequent hardware build quality issues that German users are reporting about so much. I hope I won't have to send mine back. Let's stay optimistic!

rpikencal 15y ago

It sure does seem like Verizon likes to add their 2 cents to everything rather than leave it as intended. To have a clean phone without all the bloatware that Verizon adds on would be great.