Smartphones. Who here has 'em?

[Lenny]

To this day both my kids have Verizon no-fee pre-paid phones with added text plans. My daughter has the $10 unlimited to verizon + 250 text plan and Buu has the $20 unlimited text plan (needed an upgrade going to college). The only downside is the 25 cents/min calling but that ends up being maybe $10 extra combined for both because they mostly text. So I spend about $40 a month on 2 phones and they are happy because they can text as much as they want. That's about the best I could on price and still give them something. We Skype with Buu to stay in touch with him at college.

[Brandito]

Jelly bean sounds friggen awesome. Is anyone else keeping up on Google IO news?

[kbohip]

I like the new 7" tablet Google just announced. I haven't been able to figure out if it has an SD slot or not though.

[zetachi]

I like the new 7" tablet Google just announced. I haven't been able to figure out if it has an SD slot or not though.

nope

[Brandito]

I like the new 7" tablet Google just announced. I haven't been able to figure out if it has an SD slot or not though.

It's become a trend with nexus devices to move away from external storage.

I'd like to see one, but for the price, it's touch to beat.


Now when 32 and 64gb become standard I'll be fine with a lack of external storage. It actually complicates things with my evo lte.

[Activate: AMD]

meh, it doesn't have expandable storage, but with plenty of free/cheap cloud storage options out there it doesn't matter hugely... assuming you can find hotspots. I never even came close to using either the 8GB internal or 8GB microSD cards I had installed in my DINC, and when I travel I bring my laptop so i've never come close to my HP touchpad's (with CM9) 32GB... movies just go on the laptop HDD

[kbohip]

nope

Then it's a paperweight to me.

[zetachi]

so whats everyone's take on Crapples injunction against unified search and the Gnex?

[Brandito]

so whats everyone's take on Crapples injunction against unified search and the Gnex?

It's gonna bite them in the ass.

If you can't compete, litigate I guess.

Apple does this with every market they get into. The only market they remained leader in was music players and those aren't even worth noting anymore.

#boycottapple was trending pretty hard on twitter, g+ and reddit recently, I've never owned an apple product so I'm just going to continue doing that.

It's really just sickening, so much innovation is being stifled by a corrupt patent system and trolls like apple.

[Activate: AMD]

Then it's a paperweight to me.

Really? because it doesn't have a microSD slot its completely useless? Get a grip this thing was built down to a price, not to mention that its pretty easy to work around the 8GB of storage using a lot of free methods, or simply streaming things off the web. You can't even make an argument for it on a bandwith basis like you can on cell phones since this thing is WiFi only. Would I prefer expandable storage? DUH, but at $200 for the hardware I find it hard to fault.

so whats everyone's take on Crapples injunction against unified search and the Gnex?

Its unbelievable. I might be willing to believe that the injunction is probably warranted by the letter of the law, but these patents are insane. too broad with way too much prior art. The examiners who granted Apple's unified search, swipe to unlock, black rectangle tablet, and wedge laptop patents should be FIRED. The internet took about 10 minutes to come up with prior art on these things, the people whos job it is to examine patents should be embarassed. So yes, Samsung *may* be infringing on a couple of these patents, but these patents should all be invalid, so the whole thing is completely moot.
'

And for why I hate wireless carriers (written much better than I have ever been able to manage)

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/5/313...tion-editorial

[grimmster]

Samsung wins injunctions against apple, apple wins them against Samsung, Nokia wins them against htc ( or something) thing is they are all doing it. Best thing I heard was to not allow patents against software, that would help

[kbohip]

Really? because it doesn't have a microSD slot its completely useless? Get a grip this thing was built down to a price, not to mention that its pretty easy to work around the 8GB of storage using a lot of free methods, or simply streaming things off the web. You can't even make an argument for it on a bandwith basis like you can on cell phones since this thing is WiFi only. Would I prefer expandable storage? DUH, but at $200 for the hardware I find it hard to fault.

Yeah! It's useless to me! Really!!!! Streaming things off the internet is a stupid solution that's not available unless you're near a wifi, ie it won't work in the car, a lot of hotels unless you buy their expensive internet by the day plan, camping, etc. 8gb is pathetic. My old Galaxy S has double that. I use it to hold my 20gb worth of mp3's, photos, and videos on my phone. I can add another 8gb anytime I want too, and it definitely doesn't cost me $50 either.

Yeah, I'm sure they just couldn't possibly have worked in one of those super expensive micro SD slots. That would've made the device impossible to make for only $200! Could it be that maybe they are just luring people into a device that will be obsolete in two years because of lack of storage, thereby necessitating the need for the next limited storage tablet. Nah, couldn't be that. Sorry Activate, but yes, this thing is completely useless to me, get over it.

Only 5.62GB of usable space? What a joke!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/25877...lutionary.html

[Brandito]

Yeah! It's useless to me! Really!!!! Streaming things off the internet is a stupid solution that's not available unless you're near a wifi, ie it won't work in the car, a lot of hotels unless you buy their expensive internet by the day plan, camping, etc. 8gb is pathetic. My old Galaxy S has double that. I use it to hold my 20gb worth of mp3's, photos, and videos on my phone. I can add another 8gb anytime I want too, and it definitely doesn't cost me $50 either.

Yeah, I'm sure they just couldn't possibly have worked in one of those super expensive micro SD slots. That would've made the device impossible to make for only $200! Could it be that maybe they are just luring people into a device that will be obsolete in two years because of lack of storage, thereby necessitating the need for the next limited storage tablet. Nah, couldn't be that. Sorry Activate, but yes, this thing is completely useless to me, get over it.

Only 5.62GB of usable space? What a joke!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/25877...lutionary.html

You're obviously not the user they're targeting, so your best bet is to move on.

They're going after the kindle fire crowd, that's what the play store is all about, media delivery.

This is a mainstream product aimed at getting people into the play store and the cloud. With the specs and price this baby has, I think it will be quite the success. Chances are the 10" version will be a bit more full featured for you.

[grimmster]

Just read that article. very interesting in it being the only android device (besides kindle fire) that does not have a sd slot.

speaking of Kindle fire, my mother got one (as a present, she was ready to get an iPad) and let my say, that thing is the biggest piece of crap I have ever had to use.

Slow for screen rotations, does not register 1/4 of the time you touched the screen. No physical volume button, worst interface I have used, even the setup/registration process was a chore. Sounds like this would have been tons better then a kindle fire, but even I did not know about it. Google is terrible at marketing.

[Activate: AMD]

You're obviously not the user they're targeting, so your best bet is to move on.

exactly. They rolled it out with a lot of updates to the Google Play store, so its clear they have their sights set firmly on Amazon's Prime offerings. If you don't like it, dont buy it.

Just read that article. very interesting in it being the only android device (besides kindle fire) that does not have a sd slot.

not true, quite a few don't these days, my GNex and the HTC One X come to mind. Its not a trend I like, but in the quest for more bigger batteries in smaller form factors, manufacturers are cutting it out. not to mention they can always rip you off by charging $50 for the next sized device, just like Apple.