Google To Step Up Smartphone Wars With Release Of Own Handset (telegraph.co.uk) 122
According to a report by The Telegraph, Google is working on its first Google-branded smartphone, and plans to release it by the end of 2016. Unlike the Nexus program, in which Google mandates the design and specifications of the phone, but leaves the manufacturing aspect to its handpicked OEM, the new supposed phone will be built from the scratch by Google. From the report:The technology giant is in discussions with mobile operators about releasing a Google-branded phone that will extend the company's move into hardware, sources familiar with the discussions told The Telegraph. [...] The new device, which will be released by the end of the year according to a senior source, will see Google take more control over design, manufacturing and software.NYMag questions company's reported move:It's an unsurprising rumor to hear: Google CEO Sundar Pichai has publicly commented on the company's emphasis on phones, and Motorola's Rick Osterloh was hired earlier this year to head up a new hardware division. And there's also the much discussed Google Ara, a modular phone which lets you swap out pieces like a camera or speakers and is slated for release in 2017. But Google is already working with hardware companies like LG and Huawei on the Nexus line of phones, which are made to the company's exact design specifications but are manufactured by third parties. It's hard to see how Google could take more control over design or software than it already does with Nexus, and while the company is likely eager to move into the manufacturing space, the timeline for Ara hasn't changed, and it seems unlikely that this new mystery Google phone is going to jump in front and actually become available to the public by year's end.
WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm convinced that Google, as an entity is absolutely insane and should probably be heavily medicated. They bougth Motorola to move into smartphones, but sold them, because they couldn't integrate them (IIRC there were culture issues) so when they move back into mobile, they hire a Moto guy as CEO? I'm at a loss.
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Interesting)
No. Google bought Moto for Moto's knowledge / personnel. Google got rid of the dead weight of manufacturing.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
No, Google bought Motorola for patents to shake at dick heads like Microsoft and Apple.
Re: WTF? (Score:3)
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm convinced that Google, as an entity is absolutely insane and should probably be heavily medicated. They bougth Motorola to move into smartphones, but sold them, because they couldn't integrate them (IIRC there were culture issues) so when they move back into mobile, they hire a Moto guy as CEO? I'm at a loss.
Google bought Moto for the patent portfolio, and sold the rest off the Lenovo because it was too difficult for Google to deal with other Android OEMs as both a competitor and a partner. Presumably the same issue would arise with Google-made phones (assuming there's any substance to the rumor), but Moto was already a significant competitor in the space whereas Google would be starting from scratch and not a serious threat.
Google and Moto cultures were quite different, but I don't think there was ever a serious effort to integrate Moto because of the need to maintain a wall between Moto and Android development. And even if culture issues were relevant, bringing in tens of thousands of people in an existing organization and retraining them all into the new culture is a very, very different proposition from bringing in isolated individuals, however senior.
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I have to agree. The phones that Motorola came out with after the Google take over where really good. The Moto G set a new standard for the price point.
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I think they bought Motorola Mobile in order to not worry about potential patent litigation from that direction. Now that the patent wars are slowing down, Google seems to be interested in going back into hardware, but not with the baggage attached from an existing cellphone company.
This may hurt Google in the long term, though, especially with other makers making their own mobile operating systems, so if they get too fed up with Android, they can just leave.
Also, what would a Google smartphone get me over
Bye bye removable battery and SD cards (Score:1)
Imagine, a phone where you can't turn off Google services because they're baked into the firmware.
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Google's phones haven't had removable batteries since the Galaxy Nexus 4 years ago, and haven't had SD cards since the original Nexus 1 about 6 years ago. These things aren't going bye-bye, they're already long gone.
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On topic with the actual summary - if Google had had as much control over the design of my Nexus 6p as the summary claims, it would have had a compass. Without the compass, Goog
Re: Bye bye removable battery and SD cards (Score:4, Informative)
The s7 has an SD card slot... it's hardly niche.
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Funny, that argument wasn't valid when Apple launched the iPhone.
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> Funny, that argument wasn't valid when Apple launched the iPhone.
Says who? For me its a good enough reason alone to never buy one
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I would also point out, the lack of need of SD slots isn't shown out by the huge number of lightning port external flash devices on the market.
People want expandable storage, but not enough to buy a different phone. My guess is it is more about learning a new interface, and fear of the unknown.
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
If expandable storage was no big deal, there would be no market for these flash drives, or the USB-C/microUSB equivalents.
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I dont want to now have to use some inconvenient external dongle to regain what my current phone has already built-in.
> People want expandable storage, but not enough to buy a different phone.
You're apparently assuming that people who value expandable storage currently have a phone without it. I would say the likelihood is not true, and the real problem is completely the opposite. The shrinking number of new phones that can replace features that people already have with their current phones.
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I'm sorry, re-reading my first sentence, I realized I missed half the sentence.
I would also point out, the lack of need of SD slots isn't shown out by the huge number of lightning port external flash devices on the market.
should read
I would also point out, the lack of need of SD slots being ok with consumers isn't shown out by the huge number of lightning port external flash devices on the market.
When there are enough people trying to expand the storage by plugging something into the bottom port, it proves that many people want the feature, not that no one cares. In fact, the external flash drives for phones are a horrible solution compared to SD cards, but people deal with it because it is all that is available for the iPhone and many other phones.
There are many people who still buy iPhones, but want expandab
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One word : music.
People listen to stuff in the outside on an external battery-powered speaker, and the songs and mp3 "mix tapes" won't store themselves in the built-in 8GB found on most smartphones.
Having no data plan or limited data plan is common too. Even homeless may people have smartphones now.
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Too obscure of a reference for anyone not a crew member of the Nebachanezer.
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I figured that it was a reference to the Matrix of some sort, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it's supposed to mean.
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Perhaps this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re:Bye bye removable battery and SD cards (Score:4, Insightful)
Yep and thats exactly why I haven't and wouldn't buy a Google phone.
Re:Bye bye removable battery and SD cards (Score:4, Insightful)
My old smartphone with removable battery and SD card is working just fine still. Going to see how many more years this continues for.
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My old smartphone with removable battery and SD card is working just fine still. Going to see how many more years this continues for.
Ditto. I have a plain-Jane Samsung Rugby Pro and I'll use it until it dies. No apps, no crap, just a phone with modest capability. I'd remove all the junk it shipped with if I could.
Hmmm, maybe I should buy another one before it dies because by then any phone I buy will probably be tied to some "watchful eye" corporation like Google.
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Yeah, they are on my radar if my phone breaks. Since Verizon stopped subsidizing phones, I don't feel like blowing $20 a month until I have to.
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Well, the Moto Z has adopted a novel-ish way to provide this kind of stuff in the future. It's add-ons can contain a hot-swappable battery, which bests the kind that you have to shut down the phone to swap. And I suppose somebody could make a battery+SD card module too. All in what simply looks like a scratch-proof back. It's pretty cool, if it doesn't end up being too pricey. Of course the low-end model has a skimpy enough battery that this may become a necessity. But the higher-end model doesn't ski
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30 hours vs 40 hours. I don't know if I would call a 30 hour battery exactly skimping. It is quite thin though, and I would likely lean towards the force instead if only for the screen, but the 40 hours battery would also be nice, as that is a whole weekend.
Just a warning... (Score:1)
Make sure it is a compatible 4G protocol.
As I understand it, both AT&T and T-Mobile are dropping 2G GSM at the end of this year, and T-Mobile is also dropping a number of their 3G services to clear up bandwidth for the 4.5/5G stuff.
Why do I mention this? Because like AMPS a lot of our phones may be going away. Additionally it helps make it easier to ensure those 4th amendment violations the FBI/NSA/etc are planning are easy to pull off. It's not like you see manufacturers providing phones with physicall
whining (Score:1)
Good golly when are people going to get over "the no removable battery" schtick. The number of people that care about that can barely be measured. There's plenty of external boost chargers that are easier and safer to carry around and easier to charge on the go in your car or off your computer than a second battery. Only people that talk 24/7 need a second battery. I'm surprised you are not complaining that apple only has 1 mouse button. Time to move on.
Now as for unstoppable google software. Indeed.
Re:whining (Score:5, Informative)
Needing to swap in a second battery in the middle of the day isn't the issue. The problem is that batteries lose their capacity after a year or two. Being able to swap in a new battery and have the same battery life from when you first got the phone can put off that upgrade for another year or two. I can see why manufacturers don't want user replaceable batteries though.
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Exactly. The poster you are responding to is an idiot if he thinks nobody wants replaceable batteries.
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Dreamchaser, I never said the batteries weren't replacable. they are. lots of places to get a professional to replace your worn out batteries. But that's something you do once in the life of a phone not something you need to have a special door on the back for.
Far more people would prefer a water proof phone for example than a special door on the back.
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What you seem to not understand is that when we say "non-removable battery", it generally doesn't mean that you can't replace it when it's failed. It means it takes five minutes to replace, and probably requires some tools, as opposed to just unclipping a cover by hand and pulling it out, that's all. Few phones have batteries so glued in or whatever that it actually can't be replaced. Certainly with my Nexus 5 "non-removable" battery, you only have to pop off the back cover with a pry tool and the battery i
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not in habit of replying to AC's but the argument is about batteries failing after a few years. By that time warranties are long gone. So that argument doesn't carry much weight.
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Needing to swap in a second battery in the middle of the day isn't the issue. The problem is that batteries lose their capacity after a year or two.
Bingo, this is exactly why I want a replaceable battery. I tend to keep my phones for several years and being able to swap the battery out once it's degraded is extremely useful.
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There are some really great and incredibly cheap Chinese phones with 6500mAh batteries. My brother has this one [banggood.com] and it easily goes for days without a recharge, and is a pretty good phone too.
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Being able to swap in a new battery and have the same battery life from when you first got the phone can put off that upgrade for another year or two.
That can be done pretty easily on all devices with "non-replaceable batteries" that I've used. It generally requires a screwdriver, but that's okay if you only do it once every couple of years (which means you do it maybe once during the life of the phone). Also, today's batteries have better life than those from a few years ago did, so the issue is declining in importance.
Re: whining (Score:2)
A screwdriver and a prybar and a heat gun. These devices are held together with adhesive and plastic clips, with an occasional screw.
Changing the battery on a Moto X tends to destroy the NFC antenna, no matter how careful you are.
And my 1st gen iPod Touch did not survive battery replacement surgery, back when that was still a current device.
Hell, further back, I had a Palm Zire 71 which was impossible to disassemble to get at the battery.
More to the point, there are only two things that end users will pr
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iFixit gives the Nexus 5X a 7 of 10 for repairability
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardow... [ifixit.com]
They give the 6P an abysmal 2 of 10 rating.
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardow... [ifixit.com]
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So, I guess I bought the right one. Unfortunate for my son who broke the glass covering on the screen of his after a month though, as the display assembly isn't cheap.
At least his screen and touch panel are fully functional, it appears to be just cosmetic.
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Galaxy S5 is easy, too: Remove back panel (using thumbnail in the slot provided), lift battery out.
I am at a loss as to why they're not all so simple.
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It is the pressure for always thinner phones. Personally, I don't get it, I would rather a rugged phone than a credit card that breaks on the first use, but there must be some segment of the population that wants a credit card phone that is practically single use.
For me, with camping and other Boy Scout activities, I would be happier with a more rugged version of the Brigadier with thicker glass. That phone didn't even hold up to my house, let alone camping trips.
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It sells.
Same as shiny screens on laptops, which all of them in the store have, and almost none of them do if bought from the usual sources online.
And yes, it's BS. Meh.
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Built-in batteries are swappable in most phones. Sure, it's a pain to get the back off, but if you only want to swap in a new battery 2 years down the road, that's not much of an issue. I replaced the back on my Nexus 4 - it wasn't too hard to do, and I could've swapped out the battery at the same time.
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...then again, I've had the N4 for 3 1/2 years, and don't really need a new battery yet. Or at least, I'm closer to wanting a new phone than a new battery at this point - though the N4 runs Marshmallow pretty damn well.
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I would highly recommend the Nexus 5X, it is very fast, rarely do you see the pauses of previous phones I have had, and as a previous poster typed, it got a ifixit score of 7/10:
https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... [slashdot.org]
I have had no issues with mine, I kind of miss wireless charging, but it charges so fast, you really don't need it. My son however broke the glass top layer on his within the first month...so your milage will vary.
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Needing to swap in a second battery in the middle of the day isn't the issue. The problem is that batteries lose their capacity after a year or two. Being able to swap in a new battery and have the same battery life from when you first got the phone can put off that upgrade for another year or two. I can see why manufacturers don't want user replaceable batteries though.
Do they still manufacture that model of battery?
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Good golly when are people going to get over "the no removable battery" schtick.
When batteries stop sucking.
There's plenty of external boost chargers that are easier and safer to carry around and easier to charge on the go in your car or off your computer than a second battery.
Oh that will help with the fact my battery has turned to shit and needs replacing. Much harder to do that when it's not built for user replacement. Or do you reckon I should carry round a booster in my pocket to use with the crappy a
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then go pay some guy $15 to replace your battery. You don't need a special door on the back to make it simple when it's already cheap and a rare occurence.
Re:whining (Score:4, Insightful)
I want a removable battery so I don't have to pay a $100-$300 charge when my battery completely dies after a couple of years. I'm still using a Galaxy S3, and am about to switch to my 3rd battery.
No, I don't upgrade my smartphone like a lemming every year...it's a phone...I don't need a faster processor, more memory, fingerprint scanner, rectal thermometer or any of the other widgets offered on new phones. I think it is insane that society now considers a $500-$1000 computing device "throwaway".
That being said, I will likely be upgrading in the next year or two for a larger screen & better camera. I will only look at phones with a replaceable battery.
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Ok, maybe not $300, but a few years ago a buddy of mine went to a local repair shop to try and get his HTC One battery replaced. They charged him $180, including the battery cost.
The reason?
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/120261-htc-one-teardown-and-repairability [pocket-lint.com]
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So go to iFixIt before buying a phone?
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I'm surprised you are not complaining that apple only has 1 mouse button
Fine; I will complain about the 1 mouse button. It's so abnormal. I feel like i'm wearing a mitten when I try to use their mice.
:)
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Remember, when you want to make sure you aren't tracked, you should remove the battery from your....OH!, Guess you're screwed.
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Frankly, it is much easier to carry one of those antistatic bags and throw the phone in there if you really don't want GPS and 4G to work.
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Given how hard it is to get things where the designer shows no sign of brain damage, perhaps. But in a world that puts function over form, it's always easier to have a solution on hand that requires no extra parts.
But the bag won't help you if your phone locks up (rare but not unknown).
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There are key combinations to deal with a phone lockup (power and volume down held, or something like that depending on manufacturer). However, I do understand the point, as there is the issue of water damage too. If you can pull the battery and let the phone dry, it is more likely to have no damage than it you can't pull the battery.
I was just offering a better solution for the paranoid who are afraid of being tracked. The antistatic bag doesn't care if the manufacturer hid a small battery in the phone
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Actually, the key combinations depend on the phone not being totally locked up. If it is locked up, there is nothing detecting the key presses. The key combos are just for cases where the touchscreen loses it's mind. The one thing that cannot fail is removing power.
The truly paranoid will want to remove the battery and put the phone in a shielded bag. However, most will recognize that the manufacturer is unlikely to have spent extra money hiding a secondary battery inside, especially without bullet pointing
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It would have been handy to be able to turn off my note 5 after I accidentally dropped it in the water while waiting for it to dry.
Instead, I have a phone that I have to press the home and power button about 20 times to even have a shot at the screen coming on.
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Re:Bye bye removable battery and SD cards (Score:4, Informative)
I've had phones with removable batteries before, and I used to actually think they were more convenient than USB battery packs. Back then, my phone was the only USB-charged device I owned, so I was probably right. They're definitely more efficient, as every bit of power they store goes to the phone; but, if you own more than one power-hungry USB-charged device, a USB battery pack is immensely more convenient as you can charge just one battery, which you can then use to charge all such devices.
When I got my first Android phone, a Motorola Atrix, I wished there was a battery charging cradle available for it; after all, it didn't quite match the battery life of my BlackBerry Bold (or the Curve I had before that, for that matter) and I used a spare battery for that. I did buy a spare, but it was a pain in the ass to juggle batteries in the phone for charging, so the spare battery ended up getting lost in a drawer and I bought a USB battery pack.
When I upgraded to the HTC One X, I had several other USB-charged devices, a few of which did not have removable batteries (bluetooth headsets and such), so I already had a couple USB battery packs. I thought I'd miss the removable battery as an option (even though I hadn't used it in the Atrix). I was wrong, the USB packs were great for the rare occasion that I might be away from power long enough to need one. Mind you, I plan my charging habits around my day, so I plug the phone in to fully charge before I'm going to be gone for an extended period.
This carried to the HTC One, which also had no removable battery. Then, I got an LG G3, with which T-Mobile included a spare battery and a cradle. I was excited, I had a viable (e.g. externally charged) spare battery again! And I used the USB battery packs... I always had one, to charge my other devices, so the battery itself was just another item to carry, which I never carried, just as spare batteries for the plethora of USB-charged devices I carry on a regular basis would have been. At the end of the day, a removable battery isn't as convenient as it seems on the surface.
Sure, there are fringe cases where it can be. If you're packing light, you can fit 3 or 4 of them in the space of one decent USB battery pack, which is fine if you only have one device that might need a battery; the moment you have more than that, the USB pack wins. If you actually let your phone's battery die completely, it's quicker to swap in a new one than to wait for it to charge enough to turn on; if you plan your charging habits around your day, though, you can top off that battery long before it reaches a critical charge level, rendering that a non-issue.
As for the SD slot, this is one thing I was absolutely positive I was going to miss on the Nexus 6, which I got because I wanted to try a plain vanilla Android experience. I didn't miss it one bit, in large part to my no longer carrying tens of gigs of music with me, having replaced that with Rhapsody (free through T-Mobile, though I do pay $6.99/mo to get all the features, including downloading favorite tracks so I'm not stuck without music when in airplane mode). Now, I'm not everyone, and some people might record a lot more video or take a lot more photos than I do; an argument I made for the iPhone having an SD slot at least on the 128GB models, because you're likely in an area with little or no coverage if you're also in an area where you can't find a computer to dump that content onto; but we're talking about Android here, there are options, if you need the SD slot, you buy a phone that has one.
When I upgraded to the Galaxy S7 Edge, I
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And with built-in direct-to-Google data-spying features too!
How about a phone that gets upstream updates without manufacturer and carrier cruft in the way?
Re:Finally an Android smartphone that won't suck (Score:4, Insightful)
Google's new but soon to be discontinued something...
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What vacuum? It has been in development for years now. They have several prototypes, and it isn't like moving from a prototype to manufacturing takes years more.
You must have GPS and Data enabled at all times.. (Score:2)
You must have GPS and Data enabled at all times to use the phone.
If you cover the the camera and try to use the phone, it will ask you to uncover the camera and block the phone until you comply.
Google SpyPhone (Score:4, Funny)
Introducing the Google SpyPhone, now with 50% more data-mining ability!
We don't just connect you to the world, we paw through everything you do and say and track everywhere you go in order to monetize you better!
Free yourself from the constraints of bothersome privacy with the new Google SpyPhone!
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OMG, so they might give you an advertisement for something you actually need? The horror!!1!11!
open source baseband? (Score:2)
one thing i would really like is if Google/Alphabet made their own open source baseband processor because that's the one part of the phone that is the most insecure because it runs completely independently of the operating system, is 100% closed source, has access to the memory bus of most smartphones and full access to your SIM card. simply put, it's a backdoor to your system that is protected by a black box.
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I doubt the FCC will ever allow open baseband processors. How would the Government be able to put in backdoors otherwise?
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If Google is about to start making Google branded phones, what is the couple year old Nexus 5 thing in my pocket?
It's a phone manufactured by LG [wikipedia.org].
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Yeah, that one is LG, but what about the Moto X that was manufactured by Google in Texas?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Finally (Score:2)
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Do we need an other phone? (Score:1)
Not to sound like an Apple Fan Boy. But nearly all of the Phones out today are based on the iPhone design.
Square box, mostly all touch screen. All in all rather boring today. If Google is getting back into the handset market again, they better come up with something ground breaking like Apple Did when they released the iPhone, otherwise Google will just be competing against its other Android Market Phones.
At this point, where most people who have phones already do. If they had Apple they will stick with
Predictable response to legal challenges (Score:2)
Since they've (probably quite rightly) been attacked for "forcing" OEMs to install Google play etc. if they want Android.
Easy fix; make your own 'phones...
"built from scratch by google" (Score:1)
and apple makes their own products, too. i don't think so. foxconn or someone will make them, just as they do i-whatevers for apple. all this means is google will keep full control over specs and software instead of letting manufacturers have at least a little flexibility (e.g. nexus).
How do you get any tighter? (Score:1)
Ma Bell Treatment (Score:2)
Google already has a near-monopoly on search, a browser that gets bundled and installed all over the place, an smartphone OS, a widely-used map service, etc. The privacy / surveillance implications of what Google can do is staggering.
When is Google going to get the Ma Bell treatment [wikipedia.org]?
Hahaha. Oh, they're serious? (Score:2)
My Nexus 4 was the worst phone I've ever had. The phone ran blisteringly hot and was so poorly sealed that it corroded its own power button due to sweat and humidity. 3G would stop working for 30 seconds at a time. It perfectly covered up its own speaker when sitting on a flat surface, so sounds were muted. It was smooth enough to slip off of nearly any surface.
Now the same company that was in charge of the specifications wants to be in charge of everything? Shoot me now!
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This is just one more reason to boycott Google and it's evil products.
I don't understand. Why would a Google manufactured phone be a reason to boycott Google? If you're worried about evil, surely they can't pack much more evil into a Google Manufactured phone than they could into a phone developed by a 3rd party to their exact specs?
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My guess is he works for another manufacturer and sees this competition as unfair.
I remember a while back being at a beverage industry conference, and hearing some guy saying he was going to drop his Costco membership because they were trying to become a "distributor" to get around the distributor lock-in of the various beer and soft drink companies. I thought this was a rather odd position as all they are trying to do is reduce costs to lower prices for consumers, then one of my coworkers reminded me that