What’s in store for Google I/O?

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/05/android-4-3-google-babel-and-the-nexus-7-whats-in-store-for-google-io/

by shawndumas • 13 years ago

81 46 13 years ago

jkldotio5• 13 years ago

Be careful to check that this new Nexus 7 doesn't have any features disabled before you buy one. The tethering is entirely disabled on on my Nexus 7 3G, bought outside of any contract or carrier, as it is for everyone else (search for "Nexus 7 hotspot", although that's all after the fact, this little tidbit never featured on the Nexus 7 product page or specifications).

I can't for the life of me imagine why they did that, it's ruined the Nexus brand for me.

Edit: Thanks for the downvotes.

corresation2• 13 years ago

The tethering is entirely disabled on on my Nexus 7 3G, bought outside of any contract or carrier, as it is for everyone else

Tethering works fine for HSPA+ here in Canada using Rogers, but disables if you use LTE. Whether that is a carrier flag on the LTE signal that Rogers transmits and the Nexus honors, or some technical limitation of the device, is unknown, but just notable that it isn't that tethering is wholesale disabled.

Veus• 13 years ago

It's your carrier that is blocking that, not the Nexus 7.

jkldotio5• 13 years ago

If that's the case, I am not sure it is unless you have a link or reference, why is a computer bought specifically outside of a contract obeying these directives?

Imagine the reaction if Apple or Microsoft sold a computer which "obeyed ISP flags" to limit bandwidth or made all networking options for linking to a second computer disappear from their menus depending on the whim of an ISP.

The implications are just as bad, or even worse, for Google and the Nexus brand if what you say is true.

venomsnake• 13 years ago

How exactly can carriers block a nat daemon and a few iptables entries on my device?

coolnow• 13 years ago

Just because you bought the Nexus 7 without a carrier, they can still limit what you can do as long as you're using their network, right?

jkldotio5• 13 years ago

How would they know, and how would they reach into the device and make the menu options disappear permanently? My answer to Veus has the rest of my thoughts on that.

jrabone• 13 years ago

A release of Android 4.3 for the Nexus 4 fixing the Bluetooth bugs and the WiFi bugs and the battery bugs and the IPSEC VPN bugs would be nice, because frankly my previous Galaxy S2 worked a lot better, even with Gingerbread 2.3.5. Wish I'd never bothered upgrading.

It's a shame because the Nexus 7 has been for the most part trouble-free.

wslh3• 13 years ago

Yes. The last upgrade from 4.0.* (Ice Cream Sandwich) to 4.1.* (Jelly Bean) forces me to charge the battery twice a day (or leave it plugged at work).

It is incredible how the batteries issues are impacting mobile devices. This is an area where we need a breakthrough.

mtgx• 13 years ago

Do you mean from 4.1 to 4.2? I think that's the upgrade that caused some problems for most people.

jsz03• 13 years ago

The way Android handles multi-tasking is a battery nightmare. I get random battery drain problems constantly and have had the same issue on all 4 of the Android phones I've owned so far. I don't care about 'real multitasking' so I wish Google would at least offer an option similar to Windows Phone where you can choose to maximize battery life at the expense of background services/apps. I can deal with consistently poor battery life but these random battery drains are not something I can plan ahead for. I can leave the house with 100% and 2 hours later have a dead battery or other days have no problems at all. It's infuriating how random it is.

RWeaver• 13 years ago

My Galaxy Nexus worked really, really well when I first bought it. A couple of updates later it's running like molasses despite lots of spare HD space and no random services eating RAM. The culprit is the Google services I can't uninstall and can't stop from connecting, that eat up RAM when reception is poor trying (and failing) to connect.

I wish they'd test their new OSs on old Nexus models at the very least, and why the hell can't I uninstall Google Currents..

Supermighty• 13 years ago

It could be a bug introduced with the most recent Jelly Bean update.

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=40961

drzaiusapelord2• 13 years ago

Honestly, Jelly Bean was rushed. That awful lock screen, lag bugs, and other issues are bewildering. I guess they needed to push it out for some internal goal and have been patching it since. I really hope their QA improves with the next big update.

nemof• 13 years ago

I had horrible issues with my nexus 7 till the most recent android update. The performance is still subpar, but it doesn't crash as much, at the least. I will wait till some people have test drived any new version of the n7 before getting it.

pjmlp• 13 years ago

Oh! No Nexus for me then.

obviouslygreen• 13 years ago

Don't drop the whole series based on a few bad experiences.

I have been using a Galaxy Nexus since they came out, and a Nexus 7 for almost a year (both currently at 4.2.2 via normal OTA updates). Neither has had any of the problems described.

Lemons happen. Also, these are complex machines that run complex software; malware happens too, as does innocently-perpetrated excessive resource consumption by background processes created by third-party developers that either aren't careful enough or simply missed something complex.

There's a lot of reasons things like this can happen. By many accounts the Nexus 4 does actually have serious issues in a lot of ways... of course, there are also many people that have and love this phone, too.

Don't judge the entire line based on a few complaints.

ChrisClark• 13 years ago

Don't worry about a few bad reviews. For each bad review there are thousands of people who don't have any complaints and don't bother to talk about it online. For instance, I've never had any trouble with my Nexus devices.

RobotCaleb• 13 years ago

I've had no issues with my Nexus 4.

e40• 13 years ago

I feel really bad that I recommended the Nexus 4 to a friend, and then he promptly ran into serious wifi bugs (no notifications when the phone goes to sleep). The bug is one that Google has known about for months (when he got the phone) and it was fixed trivially in the mod community, which goes to show that Google could have released a fix for it, but they didn't care.

I used to think the Nexus line was where I would get the best support--I've had two Galaxy Nexus phones (first Verizon, then T Mobile), and the whole experience with 4.2 lag issues have made me rethink this.

VLM• 13 years ago

The article didn't mention a spiritual successor to GOOG Reader. One interesting way to increase G+ use would obviously be to embed Reader functionality into G+. Stick a RSS feed into a circle. Of course its probably too late, most/many users already abandoned them. I went to Newsblur (and paid for it) and am pretty happy overall.

The theoretical GOOG babble product should also, in addition to whats listed in the article, include GOOG voice, somehow. GOOG must have dozens of "products" that all boil down to "send / recv a message" and I would like them to merge into one.

They should just buy doggcatcher as the best in class podcast fetcher and rename it "dogg-oogle" or something, and mush that into the "babble" or "g+" as per above.

I still have never found a place to try goog wallet on my nexus 7 in person. I have fat stacks of cash so you'd think there would be some interest in getting some of it. Most of the "lifestyle" vendors don't apply to me as I don't drink coffee or hang out in convenience stores and airports.

bdowney• 13 years ago

There is no successor to Reader, it's gone. Forever. Babel (Hangouts) is not theoretical, is very real and has been leaked already. It's just a walled garden (they threw XMPP away and went with their own proprietary protocol) so I personally would steer clear from it.

eco• 13 years ago

Nothing you're saying is based on anything but speculation. Babel (most likely called Hangouts) is real, yes, but that's about all we know about it.

awaghadashish• 13 years ago

No mention of chromebooks? I bet there are some exciting announcements there too

BaconJuice• 13 years ago

PixelPro $2300

DigitalTurk• 13 years ago

Google Babble would have been exciting a few years ago. Right now, however, I'm already on iMessage/WeChat/Skype/FB Chat/Whatsapp, which is too much, really.

Since I don't already use any of Google's chat platforms, I'm going to avoid Babble. In fact, I'm kind of hoping it fails to gain traction. I'd hate to be 'forced' to use it in the future.

I suspect I'm no the only one thinking this.

jsz03• 13 years ago

I doubt it will happen but I wish Google start to refine and simplify the Android UI. It's starting to get bloated and overly complex. There's only so many buttons, long presses, drags, and gestures you can jam onto a small screen. I've been evaluating a Windows Phone device to potentially replace my Android phone and it's so refreshing to have a UI that's not jam packed with features I have no desire to use. I wish the app situation was better but at this point I'm willing to compromise there to have a more usable UI. If Google can un-kitchen sink 4.3 a bit I might reconsider.

Achshar• 13 years ago

What you seek for is a big change. 4.3 is an incremental update. Key lime pie can have big improvements in UI section, which I myself am looking forward to.

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