Technology catch-all thread

[RockRaines]

f***, it better not be, I literally just got it from Amazon.

Luckily they replace everything.

[chw42]

This new Nexus 7 is f***ing awesome.

 

The screen looks amazing and it fits very comfortably in one hand. I really disliked how big the top and bottom bezel are when I first saw the pictures, but in person, it's not as bad.

[Y2HH]

This new Nexus 7 is f***ing awesome.

 

The screen looks amazing and it fits very comfortably in one hand. I really disliked how big the top and bottom bezel are when I first saw the pictures, but in person, it's not as bad.

 

Hardware wise, it sets the bar not only in terms of quality, but also price wise.

 

Now it needs some applications that don't totally suck balls on Android tablets.

[Jake]

Hardware wise, it sets the bar not only in terms of quality, but also price wise.

 

Now it needs some applications that don't totally suck balls on Android tablets.

 

What ones are you thinking of?

[chw42]

Hardware wise, it sets the bar not only in terms of quality, but also price wise.

 

Now it needs some applications that don't totally suck balls on Android tablets.

 

Most of the phone apps are fine on 7 inch tablets. I don't really mind the extra space. It's not pretty, but it's still functional.

 

I will say this though. 4.3 broke some apps. MX Player is broken and that's what a lot of people use to watch videos. It'll get fixed soon, but it's irritating.

Edited August 1, 2013 by chw42

[chw42]

Well, the Moto X is a complete disappointment. $600 off contract for 2012 hardware. Customization is nice (and the phone looks great too), but I'm not going to pay $600 when I can buy a Nexus 4 for half the price. Or hell, I can get an HTC One with that.

[Jake]

Yeah, a little underwhelming

[Y2HH]

Yeah, a little underwhelming

 

The market is saturated, at this point new devices are simply more choice. There is a sea of phones out there, unfortunately only Apple and Samsung seem to be reaping any success. It's looking like HTC is going to throw in the towel on the top end now, so another one bites the dust.

 

I think Google is smart enough to know that the upper end is owned by the big two now, and sadly most are afraid to try.

[chw42]

The market is saturated, at this point new devices are simply more choice. There is a sea of phones out there, unfortunately only Apple and Samsung seem to be reaping any success. It's looking like HTC is going to throw in the towel on the top end now, so another one bites the dust.

 

I think Google is smart enough to know that the upper end is owned by the big two now, and sadly most are afraid to try.

 

Who said that?

[Jake]

Who said that?

 

Yeah, I've not anything to suggest this. Despite some misrepresented articles that suggest the contrary, it seems that HTC views the One as a success and anticipates taking more market share in the future.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

My dad is all about this Google Chromecast. Hoping he buys it in the next week or two before I go back to school, I want to try that baby out.

[Y2HH]

Yeah, I've not anything to suggest this. Despite some misrepresented articles that suggest the contrary, it seems that HTC views the One as a success and anticipates taking more market share in the future.

 

It's not be misrepresented. They tried to enter the high end of the market and they failed. They're about to post their first operating loss and it's because of the low margins of the HTC One.

 

While they say the One has "improved their brand awareness", it's simply not selling. The writings on the wall with HTC on the high end, I expect them to fade away and be content making money with the low end versus losing money on the high.

 

I think this is rather clear that their focus is shifting to where they think they can actually make money:

 

"The Taiwanese smartphone maker revealed it plans to launch a range of "innovative and competitive mid-tier products in the coming months." HTC executives acknowledged that it has not been competitive in the mid-range smartphone market, where the industry is currently seeing the most growth."

Edited August 2, 2013 by Y2HH

[chw42]

It's not be misrepresented. They tried to enter the high end of the market and they failed. They're about to post their first operating loss and it's because of the low margins of the HTC One.

 

While they say the One has "improved their brand awareness", it's simply not selling. The writings on the wall with HTC on the high end, I expect them to fade away and be content making money with the low end versus losing money on the high.

 

I think this is rather clear that their focus is shifting to where they think they can actually make money:

 

"The Taiwanese smartphone maker revealed it plans to launch a range of "innovative and competitive mid-tier products in the coming months." HTC executives acknowledged that it has not been competitive in the mid-range smartphone market, where the industry is currently seeing the most growth."

 

The HTC One Mini?

 

The Butterfly and Butterfly S are doing great in Asia. I honestly doubt HTC will stop making top-tier phones. That's would be extremely stupid on their part.

[Y2HH]

The HTC One Mini?

 

The Butterfly and Butterfly S are doing great in Asia. I honestly doubt HTC will stop making top-tier phones. That's would be extremely stupid on their part.

 

I agree, and I hope they don't...being that IMO, their flagship HTC One is the best Android based device ever released. Then again, I'm an Apple user, so my opinion on that doesn't mean all that much. But it is the first and only Android phone that made me say, "Hmmm..." after it was released. They feel amazingly well made, and look good/high quality. I've never been a fan of the cheapy feel of Samsung phones.

[lostfan]

I agree, and I hope they don't...being that IMO, their flagship HTC One is the best Android based device ever released. Then again, I'm an Apple user, so my opinion on that doesn't mean all that much. But it is the first and only Android phone that made me say, "Hmmm..." after it was released. They feel amazingly well made, and look good/high quality. I've never been a fan of the cheapy feel of Samsung phones.

I jerk off to my phone

[lostfan]

I had a pretty odd sequence of events happen with my phone yesterday. So T-Mobile released an OTA update for the HTC One and I downloaded it yesterday. Normally you download it, install, and wait for it to finish, it reboots, shows a quick upgrade screen and that's it. Mine got stuck on the hboot screen you get when you're putting a new ROM on it or something though which sucked. I called customer service and they sent me another phone but mentioned I'd have to pay a $175 insurance fee if there was physical damage. I figured f*** it, better than having a non-functional phone, but I wouldn't be able to get the data off the phone. To make this already-long story not even longer, the aluminum case on the One is strong but not indestructible, and it was pressing in my volume down button (which hadn't been a problem until now) so I took a small screwdriver and pried the button off, and the phone finally was able to get past that screen, and a pair of pliers fixed that dent. Because I didn't really break the volume button I was able to put it back in, so now I got this phone coming and I don't want to pay the $175 because there's nothing wrong with my phone except it looks like a small animal tried to chew near my volume button. Whoops.

[Y2HH]

I had a pretty odd sequence of events happen with my phone yesterday. So T-Mobile released an OTA update for the HTC One and I downloaded it yesterday. Normally you download it, install, and wait for it to finish, it reboots, shows a quick upgrade screen and that's it. Mine got stuck on the hboot screen you get when you're putting a new ROM on it or something though which sucked. I called customer service and they sent me another phone but mentioned I'd have to pay a $175 insurance fee if there was physical damage. I figured f*** it, better than having a non-functional phone, but I wouldn't be able to get the data off the phone. To make this already-long story not even longer, the aluminum case on the One is strong but not indestructible, and it was pressing in my volume down button (which hadn't been a problem until now) so I took a small screwdriver and pried the button off, and the phone finally was able to get past that screen, and a pair of pliers fixed that dent. Because I didn't really break the volume button I was able to put it back in, so now I got this phone coming and I don't want to pay the $175 because there's nothing wrong with my phone except it looks like a small animal tried to chew near my volume button. Whoops.

 

No way. Complain, complain and complain some more. The fact that their OTA update bricked your phone has nothing to do with you, or the condition of your phones casing. That's their own fault, and you need to press them to own up too it. That's absolutly absurd. Had the update THEY released from QA not bricked your phone, it would have still worked, regardless of case condition.

 

That is 100% on them, and they should accept full responsibility.

[lostfan]

No way. Complain, complain and complain some more. The fact that their OTA update bricked your phone has nothing to do with you, or the condition of your phones casing. That's their own fault, and you need to press them to own up too it. That's absolutly absurd. Had the update THEY released from QA not bricked your phone, it would have still worked, regardless of case condition.

 

That is 100% on them, and they should accept full responsibility.

The OTA didn't brick my phone though. It works now. The software was doing what it's supposed to do (it goes to hboot if you hold down volume while it's starting up, like pressing del to go to BIOS on a computer)

[Y2HH]

The OTA didn't brick my phone though. It works now. The software was doing what it's supposed to do (it goes to hboot if you hold down volume while it's starting up, like pressing del to go to BIOS on a computer)

 

So it's all working now? Send their replacement back to them...no need to pay for something you don't really need, right?

 

[lostfan]

So it's all working now? Send their replacement back to them...no need to pay for something you don't really need, right?

Yeah, after all that I ended up not needing it. But I couldn't figure out what it was at first and I had to go through all that rigamarole. At the end of the day UPS ends up getting some extra business.

 

Now I gotta figure out where to buy a down volume button on the internet somewhere - it works fine but it's mangled-looking and scratched up after what I did to it.

[Y2HH]

Yeah, after all that I ended up not needing it. But I couldn't figure out what it was at first and I had to go through all that rigamarole. At the end of the day UPS ends up getting some extra business.

 

Now I gotta figure out where to buy a down volume button on the internet somewhere - it works fine but it's mangled-looking and scratched up after what I did to it.

 

That gives it character, and a battle scar in that you worked on it!

[lostfan]

That gives it character, and a battle scar in that you worked on it!

I considered that too

[chw42]

I had a pretty odd sequence of events happen with my phone yesterday. So T-Mobile released an OTA update for the HTC One and I downloaded it yesterday. Normally you download it, install, and wait for it to finish, it reboots, shows a quick upgrade screen and that's it. Mine got stuck on the hboot screen you get when you're putting a new ROM on it or something though which sucked. I called customer service and they sent me another phone but mentioned I'd have to pay a $175 insurance fee if there was physical damage. I figured f*** it, better than having a non-functional phone, but I wouldn't be able to get the data off the phone. To make this already-long story not even longer, the aluminum case on the One is strong but not indestructible, and it was pressing in my volume down button (which hadn't been a problem until now) so I took a small screwdriver and pried the button off, and the phone finally was able to get past that screen, and a pair of pliers fixed that dent. Because I didn't really break the volume button I was able to put it back in, so now I got this phone coming and I don't want to pay the $175 because there's nothing wrong with my phone except it looks like a small animal tried to chew near my volume button. Whoops.

 

This is actually pretty funny. Your phone would have rebooted to the bootloader every time afterwards had you not fixed it.

[chw42]

I agree, and I hope they don't...being that IMO, their flagship HTC One is the best Android based device ever released. Then again, I'm an Apple user, so my opinion on that doesn't mean all that much. But it is the first and only Android phone that made me say, "Hmmm..." after it was released. They feel amazingly well made, and look good/high quality. I've never been a fan of the cheapy feel of Samsung phones.

 

The only issues with the One that I see are the ergonomics. Power button on the top left? Only two navigation buttons (granted, this can be fixed with a custom kernel)?

 

That stupid menu button that pops up on legacy apps bugs me to no end.

[Jake]

I am totally dumbfounded as to what is wrong with the placement of the power button