Ice Cream Sandwich
Or 'droid 4.0.
Anyone have?
First impressions?
Any good?
From the little I've read there are some major changes to the UI and the way it's used. Google are calling it their biggest change since Android was launched.
*
* image courtesy of Kazuha Vinland
Last edited by Timbuk2; 12-16-2011 at 08:48 AM.
Yeah, I got me the Galaxy Nexus a few days ago. My previous phone was a Motorola Milestone with 2.3
It's a difference like between night and day
Application switching is massively easier now because that now has a dedicated button to it.
I also don't have memory issues anymore - they have revamped that one completely. Where before I had two separate storage spaces (RAM for apps and the SD card) and I was constantly running out of space for the former, there now is only one storage space.
However, this also means that when you connect the phone to the PC via USB, you can't access it as mass storage anymore (because that would give the USB exclusive access to the sd card which, due to the unified storage, would be a bad thing). This is not as big of a problem as it sounds, I've yet to find something I can't transfer over the alternative MTP channel (which looks the same).
You also don't need a separate data traffic application anymore - it's built-in now and logs everything. Tells you which application consumed how much 3G/WiFi traffic.
And so on and so forth. Quite a lot of changes.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
I have completely overhauled my ui, and am worried that upgrading will break all of that.
Might risk it anyway
How do you expect to run with the wolves at night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?
- Omar Little
@ Khendraja'aro: While I'm massively envious of your Galaxy Nexus, I'm just as delighted that my 1-year old phone are among the few that get support for this. Well, HTC won't do any effort, but through the XDA community there will be developed a custom ROM. For those wondering, a ROM is basically the Android OS modified to work on individual models (you cannot just install it on all machines, like Windows on a PC). I've spoken to Sandwold, the ROM developer, a few times now; and he has assured me that it'll become adequately fast even on my ancient brick of a phone.
Tomorrow is like an empty canvas that extends endlessly, what should I sketch on it?
So, serious question... why upgrade at all? Why not get new hardware to go with the new OS?
I read some article on Droid-OS fragmentation and how x% of platforms (and it was pretty high) only get supported through one major Droid OS revision, and thought to myself... what kind of jackass (or desperately poor individual?) would want to use the same smartphone hardware for years anyway? Question seems relevant here as well, soo...
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
-- Thomas Jefferson: American Founding Father, clairvoyant and seditious traitor.
You make it sound as if Google loses money on anyone upgrading outside the usual trade. However, it doesn't, as Android is a free OS just like Linux.
I don't see how fragmentation should be an issue either. If anything they should be grateful that old users upgrade their OS instead of keeping their old phones, so that the 3rd party operators can start developing software with only the latest OS in mind.
The jackass you're speaking of merely extends the life expectancy of his phone from one year to a few years tops. Consumer waste isn't something we're usually that happy about, or is it?
Tomorrow is like an empty canvas that extends endlessly, what should I sketch on it?
Because you're normally locked into 18-24 month contracts which prevents you from doing just that.Originally Posted by CitizenCain
How do you expect to run with the wolves at night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?
- Omar Little
So, serious question...why have a smart phone at all? Especially if they're bundled into contracts with service providers who are more than happy to screw you any which way they can?
Access to Google, Wikipedia and the Internet Movie Data Base at all times, probably.
In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
Why should the need be "at all times"?
It makes it much easier to play Six Decrees of Kevin Bacon
Surely you get the idea; since no one has to bother remembering anything once they've got Internet access, you'd want a portable one so you wouldn't be left defenseless in a pub etc.
In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
Because that's what the people want. Ever heard of consumer sovereignty?
How do you expect to run with the wolves at night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?
- Omar Little
Consumers can be dumb, though. Going into debt to buy toys or gadgets that are obsolete in a few weeks or months is seriously stupid stuff.
There's a credit card commercial showing a diapered toddler playing with the box instead of the "stuff" that came in the box. "Priceless". And also pathetic that the credit card company paid some marketing/advertising firm to produce and air the commercial, thinking (knowing?) that it will lead to more commission fees from people charging gifts on their credit cards.
I just remembered when first generation Kindles were available, and I asked others in this forum if it would be a "good" graduation gift, or not. At the time...about two years ago.... it cost around $300, and it wasn't clear how many books would be available, let alone magazines or newspapers. I decided to wait a while, and see if it flopped or had other competitors. I got some flak for that, and was even chided as a Luddite for deciding not to buy a tech gadget in its infancy. Since then, new models of Kindles have been introduced, and other tablet readers. Many now cost under $100.
So, yeah, iPads, iPhones, droid phones, and "ice cream sandwiches" can only be the newest shiny thing for so long. Even accessories like cell phone "fashion" cases went the way of the Dodo bird, just as heavy laptop carriers did, with their foam inserts and sizes large enough to need shoulder straps. Technology moves that fast.
Yes, you can always wait for something bigger and better.
You'll probably keep on waiting until you're dead.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
It was the same thing for PC components. You'd say 'Which is the best value Graphics card?' and someone would say 'Oh it's the GeForce 1, but I'd wait for the GeForce 2 in a few months'. So you wait, and then when the GeForce 2 comes out, you hear the GeForce 3 is round the corner, so you wait for that. You'll spend your whole life waiting, when you know what? The GeForce 1 would have done everything you ever needed it to do. Technology moves so fast these days that somebody is always waiting for the next best thing, but you have to jump in at some point.
It's exactly the same with cars. You buy a brand new car, and the minute you've driven it off the car lot, the value of that car has dropped by thousands. Would it have better to wait for that new car to start being sold second hand, or did you want it now which meant you could justify spending more on it?
You seem to be moaning about 2 separate things though, GGT: 'Why do we need all this crap?' and 'Why is this crap obsolete so quickly?'
The answers are we don't need it, but since when has capitalism ever been about need? and it goes obsolete so quickly because everybody wants more of it.
How do you expect to run with the wolves at night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?
- Omar Little
Wrt the car example: I just found a new car at an absolute bargain price.
Completely new VW Polo, 85 PS, several nice extras, for 12,900€. Of which I'll pay 5,000€ immediately and then ~180€ every month for four years.
The same car, bought directly from VW, would have cost me about 18,000€. And no, this car has not been stolen or something.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
Any opinion on Ice Cream Sandwich?
Tomorrow is like an empty canvas that extends endlessly, what should I sketch on it?
I don't dare to install ICS on my Desire just yet. There has been a new beta out about every day since my last post, and each time there seems to be new errors emerging. Guess I'll just have to plague myself with patience.
Tomorrow is like an empty canvas that extends endlessly, what should I sketch on it?
So, you're clearly not in the technology career field...
What you say might be all well and good, except that new Droid OS releases aren't supported (and generally don't work) unless someone goes through the effort to support them on the dozens (hundreds?) of smartphone hardware models out there. (And if someone does, then you've got the "Windows problem," where every turd of a technology is allowed to limp on a decade after someone should have put it out of its misery.)
So it actually works against your app developer, because they want to have the largest audience possible, which means they have to make sure their app works on every release of the Driod OS, and that's generally a big enough pain in the ass that after a few months of that shit, you're calculating the ROI on the cost of a sex change and cosmetic surgery against what you think you could make as a hooker.
Why not? And, why do you call it waste? It's hardly "wasteful" to regularly replace something that loses ~half its "utility" every 18 months, as computers do. And yeah, smartphones is computers.The jackass you're speaking of merely extends the life expectancy of his phone from one year to a few years tops. Consumer waste isn't something we're usually that happy about, or is it?
Oh, that's right, normal people are stupid. Fair enough answer.
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
-- Thomas Jefferson: American Founding Father, clairvoyant and seditious traitor.
You're making a fuss out of something that isn't an issue in the first place. Tell me when there was ever a compatibility issue between app developers and custom ROMs? If there is something that works on regular stock Android, but not in a custom ROM, then it is the ROM developer's fault and the one you adress to fix it - not Google. Those bugs are also most frequently part of alpha and beta versions, very rarely final installments. At least that's the case when speaking of the major contributors (Oxygen, CynagenMod etc.). It's a free market, so I'm not sure why you lay out some blame whenever a freeloader makes his choice of testing an experimental build. Either it works and he's happy with it, or it does not and he can reset to what he had earlier.
And I can see how you don't like the Windows problem, but that's software related. Hardware-wise, it can't become outdated in the same away as long as the hardware itself supports the software. You do not see Android developers being set back because they have to put into consideration ancient tech. If anything, it is because Android is meant to fit on most devices ranging from low- to ultra high end. That's reasonable when it's not all proprietary, allowing support for further development and alterations.
So you are just going to make that definition of smartphones being computers, and hence placing it on line with desktops and laptops? Wow, when did you gain the right to decide what I do and need from my phone? It is being wasteful if you could perfectly well do with the functionality for an extended period of time, but choose to cut short in order to have the latest camera, display, processor etc. for no reason whatsoever. Use it until it's completely obsolete, which isn't every 18 months. I plan to keep my HTC Desire until they stop developing for it, and the new developments bring me something significant worth upgrading to. In other words, not anytime soon. If you're going to shoot me for that, then so be it.Why not? And, why do you call it waste? It's hardly "wasteful" to regularly replace something that loses ~half its "utility" every 18 months, as computers do. And yeah, smartphones is computers.
Tomorrow is like an empty canvas that extends endlessly, what should I sketch on it?
Totally missing the point/problem, reason why those in the tech industry monitor and concern themselves with "platform fragmentation."
Accurately classify them, you mean? Yes, yes I am. And, precisely on that point, I have a desktop and a laptop from the 90's (that still work, and I still use from time to time) which have inferior [hardware] specs to my current smartphone in every category. "Smartphones" are small computers that have a cellphone integrated into them. Fact.
Correct. My position is obviously, clearly that there should be a law to force people to upgrade their phone every year, and failure to do so should be punished with death by firing squad.What the hell?
What do I care if you want to limp around on obsolete hardware or engage in any other dumb idea that strikes your fancy? I'm sure as hell not gonna stop you, just point out that it's a dumb idea. And point out that it's not "wasteful" to frequently upgrade or buy a new computer when they ~double in ~"performance" every ~18 months. ("Moore's law.") Hell, use a rotary telephone or a telegraph or smoke signals for your telecommunication needs for all it matters to me.
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
-- Thomas Jefferson: American Founding Father, clairvoyant and seditious traitor.
It's wasteful if you buy it without needing or wanting it.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
CitizenCain, don't you think Aimless' expression is a better one to stick to than your "upgrade every 18th month because performance doubles"?
I built my desktop a year ago with an Intel Core i5 750 and an AMD Radeon HD 5850 graphics card. Surely, that CPU and GPU can't put up with say i7 3690X and HD 7970, but I'm pretty convinced that I can play all games on high for another year at least. Heck, I can play Skyrim on high with a mobile GT 520M GPU in my laptop. So stop being so inflexible clinging to Moore's law, since performance increase does rarely equal need for more performance.
Tomorrow is like an empty canvas that extends endlessly, what should I sketch on it?
So Adreno2000 seems to have released the source code for full HW-acceleration, which is sure to speed things up even more. I'm suspecting that this might triumph even the speed of my Oxygen 2.3 ROM. That, and they got the files for camera now too. All that remains before a Release Candidate is fixing the major and minor bugs.
Tomorrow is like an empty canvas that extends endlessly, what should I sketch on it?
Wait, hw acceleration for the Desire?? Could it be??!
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
*watches and waits with interest*
It was somewhere in Sandvold's thread at XDA. He said he would take a look at it. Now it seems that Texasice is taking over, as somehow HE has been the one to provide the support for Sandvold (not mentioned anywhere in SV's thread). His new thread is here. According to him it's just a matter of time before they get hw-acceleration. A week, I guess. I'm sorta tempted to try it out already now, lol.
Tomorrow is like an empty canvas that extends endlessly, what should I sketch on it?
I don't like ice cream sandwiches with actual cookies; the cookies get soggy and I hate soggy cookies. I prefer my ice cream sandwiches with thin wafers that stay crisp.
Congratulations America
The only reason why I haven't upgraded yet is because they make changes to the .zip all the freaking time. They fix stuff, then ruin another. Now they have got camera, but the HW-acceleration is worse. Also seem to be random bugs that pop up for individuals, which is weird when everybody got the same phone. Oh well, I'll survive another week with 2.3.
Tomorrow is like an empty canvas that extends endlessly, what should I sketch on it?
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