[syadasti]

Since we're talking samsung, I'll throw my 2 cents in.

Don't have an iphone, but I do have a google/samsung galaxy nexus phone that I use for work/testing ( http://www.google.com/nexus/#/galaxy ).

Initial impression was pretty positive. It's big, it's somewhat light and feels like plastic. It's a joy to browse on, moreso than iOS, but there is no way in hell I'm going to carry that in my pocket. The big screen sucks for that. Battery life is also pretty mediocre to bad. The first app I tried to download from Play failed, tried again - same thing. Haven't bothered to try again.

The S3 fits in your pocket fine, its thinner and lighter than the 4S and there is nothing wrong with the play store, I've never had a problem with free or pay applications unless I forgot to turn wifi/mobile data on.

Apple products are just as buggy even really basic things like in Lion and Mountain Lion the power management settings for screen brightness don't work right. When it autodim on battery it doesn't have a static value for AC-power brightness so after a few days of taking it on and off power the screen gets dimmer and dimmer. When you shutdown the computer it auto selects reopen your windows and the shutdown at the same time and it won't deselect even if you tab if off everytime.

 

[Alpha Kenny Body]

Only an fanboy would be able to make such a comparison.

Okay, fine, so let's go with that (even though the GS3 is a leading edge smartphone, so it's more like comparing a Porsche to a BMW). This isn't a number-of-cupholders comparison. Given the pace of car technology vs. smartphone technology, it's like saying the car market has had stability control, anti-lock brakes, airbags and in-dash navigation for ten years while the Porsche just added it... and now a large segment of the car market is saying, "wow! Look at these incredible new features! Best car ever!"



Problem is, most of these features weren't 4 months delayed. They're a year, two years, three years after the market had them. Moreover - and more concerning for people who have followed or like Apple - there is literally nothing innovative about the new phone.

I use "innovative" loosely - Apple has never been a truly innovative company. What they have done, though, is take niche or little-adopted or little-known technologies, identified which ones serve a customer need, and brought them to market in a highly polished, mass-adopted platform.

The original iPhone was innovative, in that respect. The iPhone 3G brought 3G data to a widely adopted platform when high speed data and smartphones in general were not ubiquitous. The 3GS gets a pass as a minor update because smartphones were still coming into their own, and adding substantial processing speed was a fairly novel feature. The iPhone 4 at least brought the high resolution display to the table, along with a pretty monster graphics processor.

The 4S? Nit-picky updates. Siri was an attempt, but the fact is that voice recognition had been on Android for years and Siri was/is pretty buggy, so there was no real gain there. Other than Siri, though, the 4S brought nothing to the table that wasn't already established in a giant and fast-paced cell phone market.

The 5 is the same way. A 4" screen? Okay, welcome to 3 years ago. Turn-by-turn directions (which, incidentally, appear to be executed badly)? Same thing. LTE? Nice camera? All widely adopted by the market already.

All of this smells of deja vu - Apple has been down this path before, where they stagnated. Where's the NFC? That's an emerging technology that Apple could have done something cool with. Where's the more highly integrated voice - like voice typing? Where's... something that the market hasn't seen? Passport is kinda cool but it appears pretty limited and rough right now.

How do you feel about hyperconsumism? I finally realized I was an Apple addict after purchasing apple's touchpad and placing it on my desktop next to my iPad and iphone 4, It was clear to me that Apple makes great stuff but they also make you want things you don't really need, they basically go against service quality rules by not listening to their client's needs and imposing their vision.
How much better is the iPhone 5 than the 4S?
Or is this about the little steps you need to take in order to get to the top?
All of this, makes me believe that most upgrades are really not about making something better, but they're more about keeping their momentum as a trendy-brand.

 

[binary visions]

That's kind of another topic than what I was focusing on.

I agree, though. There's such a focus on tiny, incremental upgrades that add little real value and instead simply make you want to buy it because it's there. Those kind of upgrade pervade through the entire electronics industry (and, in fact, many/most other industries).

They aren't mutually exclusive to real, value-added, innovative features though.

 

[mandown]

How do you feel about hyperconsumism? I finally realized I was an Apple addict after purchasing apple's touchpad and placing it on my desktop next to my iPad and iphone 4, It was clear to me that Apple makes great stuff but they also make you want things you don't really need, they basically go against service quality rules by not listening to their client's needs and imposing their vision.
How much better is the iPhone 5 than the 4S?
Or is this about the little steps you need to take in order to get to the top?
All of this, makes me believe that most upgrades are really not about making something better, but they're more about keeping their momentum as a trendy-brand.

Everybody wants to be the highest fly on the isht-pile.

The thing about those incremental upgrades is that they are needed, because there is a churning of new customers daily and new competitor products daily. New products aren't likely aimed at converting people that just bought the last iteration, though more likely someone who has a product a few generations old. There isn't just one widget of customer being wrangled, with a universal conumption profile, particularly in terms of mot recent purchase.

I bought an iPhone 4s a few months ago, and have zero interest in upgrading to the 5. That being said, there are those who want the latest of any widget. There are plenty of riders here on the monkey who buy the latest bike gear, even if they have last year's model. This is accentuated by smartphones being a tech product, so tech people are interested and post things to the Internet, giving an apparent weight to the issue that doesn't necessarily translate to the average consumer. Impulsive consumers will take that as a sign to buy the cool new thing, regardless of need.

The iPhone came out in 2007, so this whole thing is only a few years old. As with many new products, there are many upgrades in the early stages of the life cycle. People have accepted this upgrade pace as some sort of industry standard, which is misleading. Of course upgrades are slowing down and less impressive, because producers of the product are good at covering all the bases.

 

[norbar]

That's kind of another topic than what I was focusing on.

I agree, though. There's such a focus on tiny, incremental upgrades that add little real value and instead simply make you want to buy it because it's there. Those kind of upgrade pervade through the entire electronics industry (and, in fact, many/most other industries).

They aren't mutually exclusive to real, value-added, innovative features though.

Kinda what started happening in the bike industry not so long ago

 

[dump]

The S3 fits in your pocket fine, its thinner and lighter than the 4S and there is nothing wrong with the play store, I've never had a problem with free or pay applications unless I forgot to turn wifi/mobile data on.

Apple products are just as buggy even really basic things like in Lion and Mountain Lion the power management settings for screen brightness don't work right. When it autodim on battery it doesn't have a static value for AC-power brightness so after a few days of taking it on and off power the screen gets dimmer and dimmer. When you shutdown the computer it auto selects reopen your windows and the shutdown at the same time and it won't deselect even if you tab if off everytime.

Just tried it again, and the app I was searching for is no longer there - strange. In any case, that phone is too big for my pocket... so is the iphone for that matter. ymmv.

 

[Jeremy R]

I agree, though. There's such a focus on tiny, incremental upgrades that add little real value and instead simply make you want to buy it because it's there. Those kind of upgrade pervade through the entire electronics industry (and, in fact, many/most other industries).

I went through that recently. I have the 4.5 inch Galaxy S2 with T-mobile, and I checked out the S3 when it came out. If someone handed me one, of course I would take it, but I could not see paying so much extra when my current phone does everything I need and is even running the same 4.0 software. Mine works great and I am not running a custom ROM because I use the T-mobile's wifi calling feature.

 

[Jeremy R]

Just tried it again, and the app I was searching for is no longer there - strange. In any case, that phone is too big for my pocket... so is the iphone for that matter. ymmv.

There is only one explanation for this.
Girl jeans.

 

[eric strt6]

I have the Droid Razor with the 24 hr battery. Does everything I want it to including tethering to my laptop and allowing full internet access without having to create a wifi hot spot when I am out in the field. Oh and my maps work lol

 

[dump]

There is only one explanation for this.
Girl jeans.

Ha, nice one!

 

[Pesqueeb]

 

[bean]

Oh and my maps work lol

My use has been light, but maps are working better for me than the Google Maps app that has been replaced. Turn by turn directions are a big improvement. Search doesn't send me to random unrelated businesses in other states when searching for street addresses like the google version did. The new vector maps load faster than in the previous app.

 

[jimmydean]

I went through that recently. I have the 4.5 inch Galaxy S2 with T-mobile, and I checked out the S3 when it came out. If someone handed me one, of course I would take it, but I could not see paying so much extra when my current phone does everything I need and is even running the same 4.0 software. Mine works great and I am not running a custom ROM because I use the T-mobile's wifi calling feature.

I still have my S1 (only thing missing is 4G, but I don't miss it), but if they give me a free S3 for my upgrade, I will gladly take it.

I thought it was funny that my company was charged $20 to go from 10.6 to 10.8 on my MacBook.

 

[Jeremy R]

I still have my S1 (only thing missing is 4G, but I don't miss it), but if they give me a free S3 for my upgrade, I will gladly take it.

I went from a turd flip phone to my S2 last year for free when they ran one of their deal days.
I felt like I was stealing.

 

[jimmydean]

I went from a turd flip phone to my S2 last year for free when they ran one of their deal days.
I felt like I was stealing.

I went from my AT@T slider to 2 S1's for free when I switch to Verizon. I love my S1, but I would not have paid $300 for it, but free was very worth it. I went through Wirefly when I got my phone.

 

[syadasti]

Just tried it again, and the app I was searching for is no longer there - strange. In any case, that phone is too big for my pocket... so is the iphone for that matter. ymmv.

Also keep in mind the Google Nexus 16GB is $350 unsubsidized, the iPhone 16GB unsubsidized is $650. I would hope that for $300 extra you should be able to get something notable for the premium.

The HTC One S and iPhone 5 are pretty comparable if you want something smaller but T-mobile is the only carrier offering it in the US.

 

[syadasti]

Son, I am disappoint:

Apple Inc. said Monday that it sold more than 5 million units of the iPhone 5 in the three days since its launch, fewer than analysts had expected.

Apple shares were down $6.60, or 0.9 percent, at $693.49 in morning trading. The shares are still close to their all-time high of $705.07, hit Friday as the phone went on sale in the U.S., Germany, France, Japan and five other countries.

The sales tally is a record for any phone, but it beats last year's iPhone 4S launch only by a small margin. Apple said then that it sold 4 million phones in the first three days.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 has already received nine million pre-orders before launch - even with few people getting to play on Android's latest smartphone until it arrives in the UK on May 29.

When the phone arrives, it will instantly become the fastest selling gadget in history, beating out the iPhone 4S's four million units sold in three days.

It also tops the first iPad's two million tablets in two months, and the Microsoft Kinect system - which allows you to wave at your television via the Xbox 360 games console - which shifted 2.5 million units in 25 days.

 

[jimmydean]

 

[mandown]

The sales tally is a record for any phone, but it beats last year's iPhone 4S launch only by a small margin. Apple said then that it sold 4 million phones in the first three days.

Small margin? Adding 1mil units sold to a 4mil previous number is a 25% increase in units sold. Lame.

 

[mandown]

btw, 4g is still a lame selling point. it kills battery life when it is on, and often isn't available. a tech savy bud of mine has a 4g android phone and admits he almost never hits a 4g connection.

 

[binary visions]

btw, 4g is still a lame selling point. it kills battery life when it is on, and often isn't available. a tech savy bud of mine has a 4g android phone and admits he almost never hits a 4g connection.

LTE phones have been extremely popular for a while now and it's not because they're a "lame selling point." It's because they're freakin' fast, and Verizon's 4G is pretty damn widespread now. When I travel home to NH, I have LTE for a majority of the drive up the east coast. I live in a suburb of Raleigh and have 4G through the entire city and all of the surrounding suburbs. When I traveled to San Diego, I had 4G throughout all of my travels in the city, and I just got back from Las Vegas where I only dropped into 3G when I was deep in the recesses of some of the appallingly enormous hotels.

Obviously, my experience isn't universal - but to imply that 4G signals are somehow scarce throughout the country is just untrue. On top of that, my 4G speeds often rival that of my home bandwidth.

Battery life definitely takes a hit but my Galaxy Nexus lasts through the day just fine, and I had to plug my 3G phones in every night, too.

 

[bean]

LTE phones have been extremely popular for a while now and it's not because they're a "lame selling point." It's because they're freakin' fast, and Verizon's 4G is pretty damn widespread now. When I travel home to NH, I have LTE for a majority of the drive up the east coast. I live in a suburb of Raleigh and have 4G through the entire city and all of the surrounding suburbs. When I traveled to San Diego, I had 4G throughout all of my travels in the city, and I just got back from Las Vegas where I only dropped into 3G when I was deep in the recesses of some of the appallingly enormous hotels.

Obviously, my experience isn't universal - but to imply that 4G signals are somehow scarce throughout the country is just untrue. On top of that, my 4G speeds often rival that of my home bandwidth.

Battery life definitely takes a hit but my Galaxy Nexus lasts through the day just fine, and I had to plug my 3G phones in every night, too.

Verizon LTE also includes tethering without any additional cost. I don't know how often I'll use it, but it's definitely faster than what you can usually get for free (or pay for) in airports and hotels. I tried tethering for a few minutes and for normal web browsing and there wasn't much of a difference between it and my home wifi (g not n) with a 20 Mbps connection.

 

[mandown]

LTE phones have been extremely popular for a while now and it's not because they're a "lame selling point." It's because they're freakin' fast, and Verizon's 4G is pretty damn widespread now. When I travel home to NH, I have LTE for a majority of the drive up the east coast. I live in a suburb of Raleigh and have 4G through the entire city and all of the surrounding suburbs. When I traveled to San Diego, I had 4G throughout all of my travels in the city, and I just got back from Las Vegas where I only dropped into 3G when I was deep in the recesses of some of the appallingly enormous hotels.

Obviously, my experience isn't universal - but to imply that 4G signals are somehow scarce throughout the country is just untrue. On top of that, my 4G speeds often rival that of my home bandwidth.

Battery life definitely takes a hit but my Galaxy Nexus lasts through the day just fine, and I had to plug my 3G phones in every night, too.

Interesting. My bud lives near San Diego, but gets limited LTE coverage. I just looked at the Verizon LTE map, and it looks like coverage is still quite a modest fraction of their coverage area.

Agrered that it is fast, but it is still a weak selling point. It is like looking at a street legal car that can do 200mph, but realizing you'll be stuck in traffic most days, with no genuine plans to go to the track. I could afford the sports car, but it would burn gas and I'd never get to rev it. I'll let the other consumers consume to the point that LTE becomes the standard, not the exception (not that it is far off, just not here now).

 

[syadasti]

Its also important to specify LTE because its closer to the official ITU definition of 4G than ATT and T-mobile's HSPA+ 3G they brand as 4G. Everyone else's LTE coverage sucks so ATT likes to cheat and group their HSPA+ 3G with their LTE as their 4G network coverage. Many ATT phones like the iPhone and S3 will show 4G when connected to HSPA+ 3G towers.

 

[syadasti]

Agreed that it is fast, but it is still a weak selling point. It is like looking at a street legal car that can do 200mph, but realizing you'll be stuck in traffic most days, with no genuine plans to go to the track. I could afford the sports car, but it would burn gas and I'd never get to rev it. I'll let the other consumers consume to the point that LTE becomes the standard, not the exception (not that it is far off, just not here now).

Its not a weak selling point if your home market and/or regular places of travel/business have good coverage. The coverage in your primary location is the most important criteria for choosing a cell phone provider. Why wouldn't the same be true of your phone?

Also keep in mind the build out schedules for the networks. Most postpaid users have their phone for two years...

 

[Sandwich]

I get 4G in a ridiculous amount of places. Sometimes where my wife can't get 3G. We're both on Verizon, so if your 4G service sucks I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but AT+T ain't one.

 

[Silver]

On top of that, my 4G speeds often rival that of my home bandwidth.

Last year I was in downtown Long Beach uploading photos during the Grand Prix weekend. I had upload speeds through a Verizon 4g connection that were pushing 2MB/s. They must bring in extra capacity for that, right? Because there must have been at the very least 100,000 connections all happening at once.

It was pretty impressive, considering I can't get that fast with my Uverse connection at home.

 

[mandown]

Verizon LTE also includes tethering without any additional cost. I don't know how often I'll use it, but it's definitely faster than what you can usually get for free (or pay for) in airports and hotels. I tried tethering for a few minutes and for normal web browsing and there wasn't much of a difference between it and my home wifi (g not n) with a 20 Mbps connection.

seems to me, it would be a good move to grab a Verizon Jet Pack. relatively cheap with a contract, and then your phone's web speed doesn't matter as long as you are on wifi (assuming your phone's wifi is fast enough). i get the point that a tether eliminates the adittional cost.

 

[Silver]

I thought it was funny that my company was charged $20 to go from 10.6 to 10.8 on my MacBook.

Yeah, that charge should be going the other way...

 

[mandown]

Its not a weak selling point if your home market and/or regular places of travel/business have good coverage. The coverage in your primary location is the most important criteria for choosing a cell phone provider. Why wouldn't the same be true of your phone?

Also keep in mind the build out schedules for the networks. Most postpaid users have their phone for two years...

So I'm buying my phone hardware now for what might be here in two years if everything is on schedule? Looks flexy.

 

[syadasti]

i get the point that a tether eliminates the adittional cost.

They did change their plans though so for some your bill goes up a little but you get free tethering. The data is pooled on the account rather than unlimited at first and later 2GB/device.

Also note that Verizon iPhone 5s ship unlocked. Probably Verizon figured out it wasn't worth the hassle of all the time customer support spends on fielding unlock inquiries. There is no global LTE phone yet - there are still several versions of the iPhone 5.

 

[syadasti]

So I'm buying my phone hardware now for what might be here in two years if everything is on schedule? Looks flexy.

Verizon's buildout is quicker than that. Since the first LTE smartphone was released about 1.5 years ago Verizon has expanded to over 300 markets.

July 18 2012
In what seems to be a bi-weekly event these days Verizon Wireless has announced yet another set of markets that will be receiving the upgrade to 4G LTE (long term evolution). Verizon has continued to roll out upgrades to their wireless network at a faster pace than all the others — in terms of 4G LTE — and starting tomorrow another 33 markets will get flipped to 4G.
...
Verizon also states in today’s report that by the end of 2012 they’ll have reached their goal of over 400 markets with 4G LTE speeds across the US. A pretty big accomplishment in just under 2 years.

 

[bean]

seems to me, it would be a good move to grab a Verizon Jet Pack. relatively cheap with a contract, and then your phone's web speed doesn't matter as long as you are on wifi (assuming your phone's wifi is fast enough). i get the point that a tether eliminates the adittional cost.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, but I don't see what the Jet Pack would give me over what I already have. The phone will tether, or act as a hot spot for LTE, and it's free (included in the plan price, anyway).

 

[mandown]

srsly?

4g coverage per verizon's web site. i live in SoCal. screw that, i'll wait.

 

[jdcamb]

I paid $150 for my 3g phone. I saved $2850. It is a little slow downloading porn, but does everything else perfectly. Who has 4G to spend on a phone? What does a phone that costs 4 Grand do better then mine? Are the boobies bigger, does it hate Mmike more?

 

[syadasti]

I paid $150 for my 3g phone. I saved $2850. It is a little slow downloading porn, but does everything else perfectly. Who has 4G to spend on a phone? What does a phone that costs 4 Grand do better then mine? Are the boobies bigger, does it hate Mmike more?

For the average person this is true. There are better things to spend money on than your phone/service. I too had a bottom barrel smartphone on Sprint prepaid for a year and half but it was ok since it was $25/month unlimited everything other than voice (300 minutes). I found it useful enough to upgrade to a flagship phone prepaid on ATT (via Straight Talk Sim) for $45/month unlimited everything including voice now that I have no landline. I know its not good as Verizon, but I'd rather save $20-30/month for something else and ATT and Sprint both have reasonable good coverage in my home market.

 

[jdcamb]

For the average person this is true. There are better things to spend money on than your phone/service. I too had a bottom barrel smartphone on Sprint prepaid for a year and half but it was ok since it was $25/month unlimited everything other than voice (300 minutes). I found it useful enough to upgrade to a flagship phone prepaid on ATT (via Straight Talk Sim) for $45/month unlimited everything including voice now that I have no landline. I know its not good as Verizon, but I'd rather save $20-30/month for something else and ATT and Sprint both have reasonable good coverage in my home market.

Screw you pal! I am not average in anyway. I got plenty of money to spend on boobies.....

 

[Westy]

I paid $150 for my 3g phone. I saved $2850. It is a little slow downloading porn, but does everything else perfectly. Who has 4G to spend on a phone? What does a phone that costs 4 Grand do better then mine? Are the boobies bigger, does it hate Mmike more?

Who makes the courtesy phone?

 

[jdcamb]

Who makes the courtesy phone?

Hell if I know... Have you ever heard of a Glitter bomb?

 

[MMike]

I'm updating my phone to ios6 right now. So I had to post this with my ipad