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Android for all and the new Nexus 5
- tlongren 13y ago5" screen is too big for me. Will probably stick with N4 for a while yet.
- ins429 13y ago4: 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1 mm 5: 137.84 x 69.17 x 8.59 mm just slightly but thinner
- canistr 13y agoNexus 5 site: https://www.google.com/nexus/5 https://www.google.com/nexus/5 Already appears to be down.
- mercuryrising 13y agohttps://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_5_black_16gb https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_5_bla... What's the point of having google.com/nexus/5, when people are going to be purchasing it from the play store (splitting traffic, rather than sending it all to the store)? Edit: www.google.com/nexus/5 is live now.
- badman_ting 13y agoWell, people like to learn about things before buying. It strikes me as prudent.
- tonfa 13y agoI don't think the play store link works for people in countries where it isn't sold.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- wnevets 13y agoHas been less than a year since the 4. What is the major difference from the 4?
- srin 13y agoIt's 2 weeks from a year, hasn't that been about the same as the release cycle for most flagship smartphones? Also, site's down I think, but apparently there's a new camera, haven't heard of much else
- dman 13y ago1080p screen vs 720p, faster processor, wireless charging, opengl es 3.0 support.
- srin 13y agoNice, wish I hadn't gotten my s4 now...
- corresation 13y agoNote that the Nexus 4 has both OpenGL ES 3.0 and wireless charging. Still ordered a Nexus 5, but just wanted to note that.
- Symmetry 13y agoLTE connectivity, a bigger battery, and a better camera. On, and a faster processors and more storage and stuff.
- jsumrall 13y agoThe only thing wrong with the nexus 4 is the battery life, and I don't think an 8% increase in battery size is going to help much. Maybe on average 15 minutes extra screen-on time, but then again it's meaningless without knowing something of the new processor in the nexus 5.
- bsimpson 13y agoI'm sad that the Galaxy Nexus isn't supported. My phone has increasingly been running out of RAM lately for reasons I don't understand - hearing Google boast about how KitKat has been optimized for memory had me hoping that it would support more than just the latest-greatest.
- Grognak 13y agoGalaxy Nexus isn't supported? Got a source on that? If so, that's really disappointing :\.
- canistr 13y agoAndroid 4.4, KitKat, which comes on Nexus 5, will also soon be available on Nexus 4, 7, 10, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks.
- kevincrane 13y ago> "Android 4.4, KitKat, which comes on Nexus 5, will also soon be available on Nexus 4, 7, 10, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks." Hopefully they get it working for the Galaxy Nexus somehow, mine has been a crapshoot for memory recently with Chrome just randomly restarting at times.
- hrkristian 13y agoWe'll see ports to the GNex by various teams soon enough, although it is a bit of a shame Google are not supporting it themselves, that leads me to believe they tried and failed to make it work properly. That's a bit odd, though, as 4.0 works almost perfectly on my Galaxy S, and 4.3 runs "okay". The smaller memory footprint should make 4.4 work great in theory, but it might not be a memory issue at all.
- keeperofdakeys 13y agoGoogle stated they have a 18 month support period in one of their posts, so it's just a matter of not committing to too much.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- eigenvector 13y agoHere's the Android release notes: http://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html http://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html Highlights: * WebView is now based on Chromium * KSM and zRAM integrated into stock kernel * Public SMS framework * Printing framework * Storage access framework
- klausa 13y ago>WebView is now based on Chromium Does that mean that there will no more be stock 'Browser' app? I refuse to use Chrome on Android because of brain-dead, non-disablable 'font-boosting' that makes (among many others) Hacker News absolutely unusable. If that means that the same engine is the only one officially supported on 4.4 forwards, then that's really sad and unfortunate.
- andybak 13y agoIt seems to have become much less annoying in the Chrome beta. Have you tried it recently?
- klausa 13y agoI just did, following your suggestion. Unfortunately, it's still the same unusable garbage. https://www.dropbox.com/s/rnl8m9ioi9ric5v/2013-10-31%2020.04.40.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/rnl8m9ioi9ric5v/2013-10-31%2020.04... - latest chrome beta (release looks absolutely identical) https://www.dropbox.com/s/867wrehnqsiu3oc/2013-10-31%2020.04.58.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/867wrehnqsiu3oc/2013-10-31%2020.04... - CM10.1.3 stock browser
- vladgur 13y agoI dont think news.ycombinator.com is that usable on iphone either. I use ihackernews.com for 98% of my HN browsing. Try it on your phone.
- Symmetry 13y agoWell, there's always Firefox and a whole bunch of other browsers if you don't like Chrome.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- hrkristian 13y agoThat was to be expected, so long as Google and LG don't skimp on releasing sources I don't see the issue. Developers shouldn't need a specific device to feel like a special snowflake, if you ask me, they are by default.
- k-mcgrady 13y ago>> "I'm a little bummed that this is now a consumer device instead of a legit developer powerhouse" What's your reasoning here? You don't develop on it, you develop on a computer. As a developer I don't particularly want to be testing on a really powerful device as most of my customers won't have that power available to them. I want to test on a few screen sizes running average hardware.
- recursive 13y agoWhat's a legit developer powerhouse?
- Spoom 13y agoBehind the polish on the screen is the power under the hood. Take the Phone app, which for most people hasn’t really changed since the days of flip phones. Now, we’re making calling easier than ever, by helping you search across your contacts, nearby places, or even Google Apps accounts (like your company’s directory), directly from within the app. Is that marketing speak for, "We're moving the Phone app into Google Play Services"?
- kcorbitt 13y agoSome background on how this fits into a wider trend: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-... And the discussion, much of which involves explaining why this tendency is maybe not as sinister as the Ars article implies: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6582494 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6582494
- e12e 13y agoI'm more concerned about the integration of hangouts with sms and mms -- I read that as all other voip/video calls and messaging services (xmpp) will be further pushed into the cold.
- drcube 13y agoI thought it was "Key Lime Pie"? Did Android get a corporate sponsor?
- k-mcgrady 13y agoIt was announced a couple of months ago. I don't think any money changed hands it just a big marketing partnership. KitKat are producing millions of bars with a special Android competition and Google are naming the OS KitKat.
- ambiate 13y agoI will be sticking with my Nexus 4. I do not utilize the camera too much. KitKat will come to the Nexus 4 in time. The price is the really questionable point.
- corresation 13y agoThe doubling of screen resolution is what has inspired my update, not to mention the ridiculously powerful CPU/GPU.
- Sargos 13y agoThe Nexus 5 is just about the same physical size as the Nexus 4. The bezels are much smaller to accommodate the screen.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mgraczyk 13y agoI just bought one. I currently have a GS4, used to have a Nexus 4. Every day I wish I had kept my Nexus 4. Now I can fix my mistake!
- JTon 13y agoI'm with you. I fail to understand the hype behind the Galaxy series smartphones. The only thing I like about them is they are most always equipped with a beautiful display. Touchwiz is lack luster at best, and I'm unimpressed with the materials design. Battery and reception have glaring issues as well, at least in my anecdotal experience.
- HorizonXP 13y agoAlready bought the Nexus 5. My GNex is really showing it's age, and it'll be nice to have a device with the new OS to develop and debug apps with.
- rogerbinns 13y agoMy GNex is still doing just fine! The recent 4.x dot releases have been a bit shabby, but fundamentally things work (bluetooth cough cough). I guess being stuck with a 4.3 device for testing will be ok. I do most of my Android dev and testing on the first gen Galaxy Tab 10.1 which is stuck on Android 4.0, and my consumption/games on a Nexus 10 which Google will no doubt abandon soon. Doing dev and debug on a device I don't actually use has been effective. My most productive features have been having the device in a dock, and using wifi adb so I don't have to bother with cables.
- ciferkey 13y agoFor all, unless you are on Verizon.
- mscottmcbee 13y agoI was wondering about that. Can you can still buy an unlocked phone and use it with their service?
- cleverjake 13y agonope
- drhayes9 13y agoThe phone supports CDMA..? I'm on Verizon and really want this phone (eventually). Are you seeing that it doesn't work with Verizon somewhere specifically? Edit: More comments here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6648976 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6648976 and here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6648664 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6648664 but not seeing links, feels like hearsay.
- ciferkey 13y agosenior VP of Android Sundar Pichai told us that "the Nexus 5 will not be on Verizon." My bad. I should have included a source first. http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/31/5051304/google-nexus-5-wont-work-on-verizon http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/31/5051304/google-nexus-5-wo...
- csomar 13y agoI had a terrible experience with the Nexus S. I bought it a couple years ago (which seems to be a vety long time in Google terms) and right now it's totally unusable. It's very slow, the battery is sucked up in less than an hour when on wifi, some apps can't work, the play store is a mess and I can go on and on. I experienced the nexus 4 a little bit and though it's a great phone I'm afraid the next OS updates are going to ruin it just like it happened to the poor Nexus S. My next phone is going to be an iPhone as I had a rather pleasant experience on the iPad.
- vdaniuk 13y agoJust to counter your anecdote, my HTC Desire D which is the same hardware as Nexus S was one of the best phones I had with great battery life, durability and it works well even after I dropped it on the concrete and in the water on several occasions.
- vdaniuk 13y ago*Desire S
- corresation 13y ago>which seems to be a very long time in Google terms To be fair, that was during the iPhone 4 period. The iPhone has since gone to the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, and then iPhone 5s. Many users report an absolutely miserable experience with iOS 7 (and even 6) on the iPhone 4. The mobile industry has moved very, very quickly, and devices are a magnitude more powerful+ than just a couple of years ago. As a developer with an interest in mobile, I've gone through literally seven different smartphone devices in the past three years.
- mscottmcbee 13y agoI love this as a stark juxtaposition to the Apple "Hold a grand event to announce new OS and phone dates"
- wowfat 13y agoJust purchased one thanks. It says dispatch 8th Nov. In uk. Moved from sg3
- spindritf 13y agoWait, wait, does that mean that I can expect some version (possibly not entirely official) of Android 4.4 to run on my old HTC Desire Z? A snappier Android on a device with a keyboard would be great. Or is it for the billion people who buy a phone from now on?
- hahainternet 13y agoYou shouldn't rely on it. 4.3 barely runs and modern opengl apps fail badly in mysterious ways. It's not seeing much attention and it's basically dead these days. I just bought a n5 to upgrade. I love the keyboard, but I also want a more modern device.
- undoware 13y ago...anyone else seeing 'out of stock' for all configurations and models? Yep, definitely another high-grade Google Play user experience....
- corresation 13y agoHugely anticipated and closely watched release, and thirty minutes later you're complaining that they're sold out? Come on. I knew it was coming and got in early, finding it the most enjoyable Nexus purchase yet -- available in many markets the day it is announced, the Play store didn't crash and functioned speedily, and it will ship in days? I'd say it was a fantastic user experience.
- aroch 13y agoHugely anticipated only in the tech world...No one else really gives a shit -- as seen by the Nexus 4 sales numbers after more than year (3mil units)
- corresation 13y agoThat's fascinating, but how is that relevant? Yes, this device was wanted by a lot of people, many of whom were going to storm the gates. Evidenced by the fact that it sold out. If it makes you feel better trying to niche the sales of Nexus devices, good for you, but I see absolutely no point in your comment.
- aroch 13y agoYou make it sound like they blew through a massive stock of them because of demand. More than likely they blew through Google's standard, lackluster supply which is hardly surprising. Google's ability to properly sell physical hardware is abysmal
- corresation 13y agoI didn't make it sound like anything, beyond that -- relative to a Nexus device -- there is enormous pent up demand for this. The hype has been building for weeks, and the anticipated release has been very, very closely watched. Everyone knew this would be a hugely front-loaded purchase. If Google does what they traditionally do they will be going through batches, with small delays between. With each batch the estimated delivery time will increase -- managers will meet and get agreements by vendors -- and supplies will reappear.
- neel8986 13y agoFirst major smartphone which included India as one of the first few countries to be released. Nexus 5 will have a huge impact on high end market in budget conscious indians. Selling at 28k where HTC one, note3 and Lumia 1025 are being sold at around 50k!. If distribution channel is properly organized it will just blow away the likes of samsung,nokia and HTC
- wuliwong 13y agoEngadget says no Verizon support. Is this true? I thought they had Verizon's LTE bands listed but I'm not very familiar with all this stuff.
- beowulfey 13y agoThey have one of Verizon's LTE bands but it's more likely that Verizon will block the phone. Their networks run on a whitelist.
- kdot 13y agoVerizon's band 13 LTE (700 c-block) is not listed as supported, but band 4 is (AWS). Slim chance of connectivity if Verizon has deployed AWS in your region.
- sirkneeland 13y agoThe thing that concerns me the most is their deep linking from Google search directly into native Android apps. The last thing the web needs is even more of being silo'd off into closed apps.
- beauzero 13y agoGoogle keeps rolling more and more up under them. I can understand the "good" argument...it rids the platform of fragmentation. ...but Android is slowly becoming less open. Scares me a little. Why shouldn't it?
- gtaylor 13y agoThe "open" part of this is being blown up a bit out of proportion, I think. Nothing stops other OEMs from replacing the Play apps (the closed part of this) with their own. Are you an developer at an OEM? I'm just not sure why this would worry you. It sure beats not getting timely updates for core pieces because of silly carriers.
- alexc05 13y agoHit refresh. I saw it sold out, then when I reloaded there was one in stock. Also be sure to check the 16/32 & white/black permutations.
- Aardwolf 13y ago"the book you're reading, the game you're playing, or the movie you're watching" I'm confused, PDFs, games and movies already are full screen on previous android versions.
- MikeKusold 13y agoOn my N7, reading replaces the action bar with faded out dots. I'm assuming that in 4.4 the action bar disappears now too. I've read that you swipe from an edge to make it reappear. I'm interested to see how edge swipe heavy apps (Kindle) will handle it.
- makmanalp 13y agoI almost choked when I was watching the video and I thought I saw Stallman on second 11: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ0XTJqFLIE#t=11 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ0XTJqFLIE#t=11
- kiallmacinnes 13y agoWell.. that was probably the most impulsive buy I've made in a long time... Shame on Google Play for not crashing this time around!
- kiallmacinnes 13y agoWell.. that was probably the most impulsive buy I've made in a long time... Shame on Google Play for not crashing this time around!
- kiallmacinnes 13y agoWell.. that was probably the most impulsive buy I've made in a long time... Shame on Google Play for not crashing this time around!
- acconrad 13y agoOkay I thought the camera on my Nexus 4 would kick ass but it sucks compared to an iPhone. The only way I'm going to purchase this 5 is if it has iPhone-esque camera quality.
- nodata 13y agoDefinitely agree.
- nmeofthestate 13y agoIn a moment of madness I managed to easily buy a Nexus 5 on the UK Play store. Last year it was months after N4 release until I was able to grab one. I don't normally splurge on consumer goods but in this case, the camera looks like a step up, and more battery life can't be bad. I thought "ach why not", but bought it at least partly out of surprise that the online store was working :)
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Akujin 13y agoStill no qwerty slider. No thanks. If I wanted to waste half my screen on a keyboard I'd buy an iPhone.
- tomkarlo 13y agoDon't hold your breath on that one. Does any major manufacturer have a flagship slider keyboard any more?
- sblawrie 13y agoThe beauty of the iPhone is that the keyboard goes away when you don't need it. That's why qwerty sliders are obsolete - they're there whether or not you want them.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Zoomla 13y agoI was hoping for waterproofed...
- aaronetz 13y agoFinally, true full screen support! That was my main gripe with Android VS iOS. Personally I find the navigation bar very hindering in games, where I have to be careful not to touch it (not to mention the wasted screen space). My young kids keep touching the navigation buttons by mistake, making using drawing/music apps a very frustrating experience for them. I hope that various app developers will catch up quickly with this feature.
- zokier 13y agoAndroid for all, except me: > Sorry! Devices on Google Play is not available in your country yet. Oh, wait, their "all" means "U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea", ie 10 out of 200ish countries in the world.
- tjgq 13y agoIt really bothers me that they disallow people altogether from seeing the page just because they live in the wrong country (or happen to be passing by). The web is not supposed to be like this.
- binarycrusader 13y agoSome countries have specific laws that apply to the advertisement or listing of products to users. I suspect that's part of the reasoning.
- JoseVigil 13y agoThe story behind the scene to my eyes is Google removing out of the box apps from Android to leave it PLAY dependent 100% if possible %200. This means that no other store like Amazon will be able to create a second store based on Android with a fresh environment out of the box. Google says is due to modularity I say due to market strategy. As a clear example (apart from the clear explanation of the article, great article BTW) a feature released today on KiKat 4.4 is that WebView is based on Chromium, this means the sole purpose of only Google using WebView. If I where Amazon I would be reconsidering having to develop all again for future releases or today make a fair deal with Google. However this is not bad news at all for startups like myself because of two things. 1) Google will spend about a year or two on refactoring Android to fully cope with PLAY dependence allowing some spare "time" for third party ideas on features that can advance outside Google internal teams. 2) Third party developer a are now in equal position to compete with Google applications to win terrain into Android future tiny out of the box. Basically on future ex-activated apps like mail for example.
- keeperofdakeys 13y agoI suspect the webview was updated because of two related reasons, first they didn't want to maintain a separate webkit, and second because Chromium/Chrome have switched to Blink (a fork of webkit). Also, being Chromium this should be directly in the ASOP sources, so it's still separate from Chrome.
- bad_user 13y agoI really hope the new version of Android fixes the bug in their Wifi-enabled location service in version 4.3, as it's been draining the battery on my Nexus 4, with the only fix available being to disable it.
- fidotron 13y agoI'm disappointed with the current lack of details around this. For example, it's unclear if the rumoured Dalvik improvements made it in. The omission of GN support is slightly galling too, although with the variants of that in the wild it may be too complicated to deploy. That said, a couple of things in the API, especially the storage framework, could be really good. That may provide a way forward to get apps working with the cloud or self hosted servers with a common API, which would be a great development. Cyanogenmod usage may get a big spike when they get on to Kitkat, and that might be just what the Android ecosystem needs.
- saamm 13y agoAs a GNex owner, I'm a bit upset with the fact that there won't be official support for 4.4 on my phone. Supposedly, this choice is due to TI not supporting the chip anymore.
- gantengx 13y agoGoogle partnered with LG to develop Nexus 5... So remind me again why did Google bought Motorola for? ಠ_ಠ
- jaxytee 13y agoThis: " In addition, the new Chromium WebView supports remote debugging using Chrome DevTools. For example, you can use Chrome DevTools on your development machine to inspect, debug, and analyze your WebView content live on a mobile device." This is a huge step forward for the development of HTML5 hybrid apps if it allows us to debug our app's embedded webviw. Good riddance console.log(*) debugging.
- jaxytee 13y agoThis: " In addition, the new Chromium WebView supports remote debugging using Chrome DevTools. For example, you can use Chrome DevTools on your development machine to inspect, debug, and analyze your WebView content live on a mobile device." This is a huge step forward for the development of HTML5 hybrid apps if it allows us to debug our app's embedded webviw. Good riddance console.log(*) debugging.
- orbitingpluto 13y agoJust a tip: Make sure you are logged into your Google account. Until I logged in it was showing as "Out of Stock". 32gb black was available when only the 16gb white was available previously. Also note that mine is a Google Play Dev Account, which may or not affect availability.
- taurath 13y agoIts too bad the focus isn't on battery life. "7 hours" internet time on wifi, when you're on airplane mode. And they refresh the same page every 40 seconds. How about a real battery test, where you simulate someone reading HN or reddit, opening gifs, images, web pages with crappy flash video. I'm tired of the same 3 hours of useful battery life I've had since the HTC evo. Maybe I'm just bitter because my galaxy nexus has around 8 hours of idle time if I have 4G on (this after doing a clean wipe not 1 month ago).
- Everlag 13y agoHoly crap, scrypt is now in android as a default method of key stretching for whole disk encryption! That makes it way of a legitimate option and I'm really happy to see a memory hard algorithm being adopted in such a large area! https://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html#44-crytpo https://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html#44-...
- MatthiasP 13y agoSo it is now official that Nexus devices get 18 months of software support and then it's game over? That's quite disappointing, even Samsung supports the Galaxy SX line longer.