The downside to fragmentation (2 Viewers)

[Sam Posten]

A new competitor emerges! This time in the form of a company formed by the founder of Oppo Pete Lau, who has some interesting ideas on what matters:
http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/23/oneplus-one-launch-ceo-pete-lau-interview/

With the likes of Xiaomi, Meizu, Huawei, Nubia and IUNI all participating in the fierce price war in China, it may seem like there's barely any space left for a newcomer. But OnePlus' Lau disagrees, claiming that while the competitors offer attractive prices, they aren't serious enough about their products in terms of design, battery life, build quality, software and camera performance.

Having seen how successful Oppo did in the overseas market via the e-commerce channels, Lau decided to give it a shot both locally and internationally by forming OnePlus, which is totally separate from his former company (with the exception of the current OEM relationship and a few common investors up top). His company's mantra is "never settle," in the sense that consumers shouldn't have to settle with lesser quality and limited options for the sake of cheaper prices.

Consider me intrigued!

 

[Sam Posten]

More details leak on Project Silver, designed to give Google more control over the whole ecosystem:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/29/google-android-silver-program/

 

[Edwin-S]

This sounds like a close-the-stable-door-after-the-horse-has-escaped strategy. Too little and too late. Google isn't going to reduce Samsung's influence with this strategy. They hold too much of the market. I hate Samsung, but even I had to concede that their S4, at the time I was upgrading, was the best bang for the buck. It had the largest screen size, a quad-core processor and the most memory storage of any of the phones I looked at at the time. Nothing else compared for hardware specs.

 

[Sam Posten]

That's kind of my point for the last 6 years or so. Specs don't matter, at least not past a certain minimally viable point. Experience matters.

 

[Hanson]

Sam, I think you're saying exactly the opposite of Edwin.

Also, specs do matter. Clearly, Apple moving to 4.7" and 5.5" screens means that spec matters. The camera matters. Battery life matters. Waterproofing matters. If someone comes out with a shatterproof screen, that will rule the market. These specs totally matter. It's not all about software and UI as much as you've fooled yourself into believing that.

 

[Sam Posten]

Objective numbers don't matter, think 'megapixels'. Subjective spects matter, think 'low light performance and quality of pixels'. For example over multiple years where bemoaned how dinky Apple's camera specs were until they actually got used and found to be right in the sweet spot of usability. And how right now 4k video is being added to phones but the quality is so suspect and the burn rate on the file sizes so huge as to make them unusable outside of highly specialized one off events?Not a single person on the planet can tell the difference between a 1 ghz processor and a 2ghz one without a stopwatch. But everyone can tell when enough improvements to the overall system enable a generational leap in graphics quality.

 

[Sam Posten]

I saw this screenshot the other day and just shook my head. It's actually more compelling seeing it in motion:
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/05/20/gyroscope-fragmentation

It's just weird that it isn't rock solid at this point. Not sure I've ever used the compass on any of my Android devices but I've never been aware of the problem till now....

 

[Hanson]

And now it sooo important.

 

[Sam Posten]

C'mon man, if this was Apple they'd be having a hastily assembled town hall to announce a get well plan, no matter how trivial you and I find it. And the first knucklehead to follow his errant compass off a short pier would be world famous. Like I said it's -weird-, not important to me. It just illustrates the corners cut and in attention to details. For me details matter, I get that it isn't important to everyone.

 

[RobertR]

C'mon man, if this was Apple they'd be having a hastily assembled town hall to announce a get well plan

And you'd be saying "hey, I don't have the problem, so I don't see what everyone's so worked up about".

 

[Hanson]

Right Sam, they go after Apple for trivial shit like antenna problems and fucked up maps. God, they'll attack Apple for practically nothing. Meanwhile, you post 100 articles about the Android malware problem that practically no one outside of China experiences.

 

[DaveF]

I've never really understood the compass feature in my iPhone (presumably it would be the same in an Android phone), as it tends to work poorly in practical situations. In a car, all the metal screws it up. It's often 90-deg off, or asking me for magical figure-8 incantations. (It was awful in my iPhone 4. I think it's better with the 5S.) Walking in urban areas, it can be very useful, but will erratically give weird or unstable orientations.

 

[RobertR]

Doesn't GPS make the whole concept of a compass irrelevant, at least with respect to knowing which way is north?

Edit: I have an Android app called GPS Essentials, which uses GPS to determine direction, and includes a compass. Looks to be accurately showing the direction.

 

[DaveF]

GPS tells you where you're located. Compass tells you which way you're facing.

GPS is a point. Compass gives you the vector.

GPS figures it out once you're in motion based. But when you're trying to figure out where you're at and how to get someplace standing / parked someplace, that compass feature can be very helpful.

 

[RobertR]

GPS tells you where you're located. Compass tells you which way you're facing.

GPS is a point. Compass gives you the vector.

GPS figures it out once you're in motion based. But when you're trying to figure out where you're at and how to get someplace standing / parked someplace, that compass feature can be very helpful.

But when I use Google Maps, which is obviously a GPS app, it also shows the direction, and it shows the direction without moving. It seems to me that if a phone knows the location of satellites (which is how GPS works), then it knows which way is North.

 

[DaveF]

I suspect the GPS app is simultaneously using the internal compass to identify phone aiming. That's how it works with Google Maps and Apple Maps on my iPhone.

in the GPS app, hold the phone flat. Tap the location icon to turn on compass mode. Then rotate the phone around. The map will spin in opposition, to remain aligned with the compass heading. I doubt this is a GPS feature: GPS receiver doesn't know anything about your phone's orientation.

What's interesting -- and I hadn't notice this before -- is in Google maps, there's a little arrow next to the location marker. Spinning my phone, regardless of "compass mode", that little arrow spins to indicate your orientation. I'm confident it's using the Compass in an always-on fashion to show that. It's a clever bit of UI. The Apple Maps only shows relative orientation when the compass mode is on, which forces the map to re-orient in real time. That little indicator arrow, with fixed orientation map, is an interesting in-between state.

 

[RobertR]

C'mon man, if this was Apple they'd be having a hastily assembled town hall to announce a get well plan, no matter how trivial you and I find it. And the first knucklehead to follow his errant compass off a short pier would be world famous. Like I said it's -weird-, not important to me. It just illustrates the corners cut and in attention to details. For me details matter, I get that it isn't important to everyone.

So when is the town hall meeting?

http://www.imore.com/how-accurate-digital-compass-your-iphone-5s

 

[Sam Posten]

Seems pretty obscure Robert, I have never heard of that complaint before. Did anything get fixed in 7.1? I admit to not using my phone as a level ever, and wouldn't choose it for anything more serious than a painting orientation if I had to.

 

[RobertR]

It wasn't obscure enough for you not to post something about it, Sam.


http://wilkinsondarren.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/19-update-should-you-trust-your-digital-compass/

 

[Sam Posten]

Sure sure, make it about me. You didn't answer the question tho: Is the problem fixed?