I've tried various other third party apps that claim to be able to help with this, but none of them helped.

Really great to hear your impressions of the device. I'm interested in picking one up as well, but I'm waiting to see better accessory support. It looks like the dock isn't even out yet. If Google also releases any kind of car dock that's made for this thing, I will order a Nexus 4 immediately as well as all the accessories

Thanks for sharing your followup, and glad to hear it's working out for you.

Hiding unneeded apps, yeah that would be nice. Androids separation of the home screens and app screen is one way to do this, though adds a bit of janitorial work for setting up the home screen. I'd need to live with both on a phone for longer to really decide which way I prefer.

Widgets could be handy, and I do make use of an app that sends push notifications about the temperature outside. Just updates the little red circle with the appropriate number. iOS could definitely make better use of widgets.

The Mail notifier didn't hit me as a big feature, mostly since Mail is in my dock on both iOS devices. I can see the benefit of having it on every screen though for those who really need e-mail.

Did you not have tethering on iOS though? I've been using it for a while, and it is indeed very handy. These days, I tend to tether off the iPad to the phone or the computer, since it's the one device I have with LTE.

Data stats would be very nice to have. Though past experience with the battery stats (on 2.1 with a Galaxy S) showed me that screen was untrustworthy and useless. I haven't spent enough time with that part of the Nexus 7 to see if it has improved.

Any thoughts on the Google vs Apple ecosystem at this point? Thats the bigger question for me these days, and more of the deciding factor if I were to ever switch. Each little device is going to have it's good and bad features, difference in quality and such that can all be dealt with. The ecosystem requires a bit more work to transition between.

Tom, I'd be interested in knowing more of what you personally mean by ecosystem. I could see that being one of a few things when you're talking about Apple. I just want to know what that means to you.

It's a mixture of devices and services. My entire house is Apple stuff now which brings benefits beyond what just one device does. Some small examples of the ecosystem at work:

I edit an address on my desktop using a local application, and my phone has the new address in seconds.

I have a YouTube video on the phone I want to share with friends, so I turn on the TV and display it using AirPlay.

I start reading a book on my iPhone on the go. I resume later on the iPad, which automatically downloaded it and synced my page.

I edit a spreadsheet on the desktop, then edit later on the phone. No manual syncing or digging through folders to find a file.

I take a picture on the phone, and it's on the laptop photo program ready to be edited or shared with no cables.

My router detects a problem with the internet connection and an app on the desktop reports the problem to me.

I watch a TV show on the TV for a bit, but then decide to resume later on the iPad.

I'm on the road, and need a file off the home computer. I simply copy it as if I was on the same network, just a little slower.

If any of these devices fail, a replacement can be brought back to 100% of where the previous device was before the failure.


I'm curious about the similar experiences living in an all Google world. This is stuff I use frequently, and factor in now if I'm looking to go with another device. And I do mentally keep an exit path planned if ever needed from the current setup. So far nothing in the other ecosystems (Google, Amazon, Microsoft) is a 10x jump to really make me go "Wow, thats worth the effort to switch". I may be missing some of the benefits though, hence my interest in others experiences.

Its not just email that the notification area is useful for, messages, voicemail, missed calls or whatever information a third party app might want to show. I've had the temperature up there for example.

I would often forget to reply to a message or such like on iOS because I was in the middle of doing something else when it came in and once the notification banner had dissapeared it became victim to "out of sight, out of mind".

Tethering on iOS was dependant on your service provider, some allow it, some don't. Some allow you to add it for a fee and my network allows me to do it but because they're a virtual network they don't have their own carrier profile so although permitted on the tariff, you couldn't actually do it because of the parent carrier profile forbidding it.

Eco system, well I don't think anybody could deny that there are a lot more higher quality apps on the apple app store, however, I've not found that I've wanted or missed anything that I had on my iPhone.

Adrian

Tom, as usual I think it's really what fits you personally. With the Apple ecosystem they have the benefit of building all the hardware and all the software. That gives you a ton of great benefits.

No, I still don't think you'll like Android, Tom. The phones are really nice and the operating system has matured to a really great point now, but it just doesn't fit you, and that's fine. I love it, but that doesn't mean you have to.

I'll address some specific points:


Ah, see, you take out "using a local application" and it's the same thing. This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about when I say that the alternative ecosystem doesn't fit you, because I don't care - nay, I prefer - that my contacts are all on the web.


Just FYI, this is easily done between an Android phone and a Google TV. Plus, I can do it at any time, like in the middle of watching TV since I don't have to change inputs.


I don't understand the second part of that. Manual syncing?


Bah, easy. My browser tells me that. It's called "I can't get to anything on the internet"

You can sync Gmail calendars and contacts with iCal and MacOS Contacts. If you subscribe to Google Apps for Business, you can also sync with Outlook if that's your preference.



I have extensive experience with AirPlay and I think it's a big feature that keeps many iOS users from experimenting with Android. If GoogleTV actually works well like you say, I may have to invest in one of those $99 Vizio boxes.



I think Tom is talking about iCloud document syncing which works pretty well. Google Drive accomplishes the same thing, but you have to actually keep your documents in Google Drive and install the desktop OS syncing software. The upside to that is it works on Windows and OS X (and Chrome OS if that means anything to you).



Windows Vista and 7 (and I assume 8) do this. When there's no connection to the internet, the network icon in the task tray changes and a balloon pops up. Any non-skinned/Nexus Android device also does this. When the signal meters turn grey, you can't reach the Google mothership.


Dropbox does this on Android. Google+ also does something similar, but the photo is in the cloud, not on your desktop.


That's not happening with an Android device at the moment, but the Chrome Remote Desktop extension works quite well. Unfortunately, it only works with Chrome on Windows, OS X, Linux, or Chrome OS. Hopefully it will be extended to Android at some point.


Sadly, Google is lacking in this area too. You can backup your device to the cloud and restore some of its settings to another device, but it's nowhere near as good as Apple's implementation. Google will just restore your WiFi access points and passwords and your installed apps (if you're lucky). If you're unlucky, it will either restore nothing or every app you ever downloaded (including ones you've uninstalled in the past). It's too flaky and I usually choose not to restore when setting up a new Android device. I change phones every couple months, so I'm pretty good at manually restoring things at this point.

Completely agreed. One however does not know what fits without knowing the other options well too, hence me asking and wanting to throw out benefits I currently enjoy to compare. It's also why I'm willing to buy and try other devices too. This isn't a contest to say which is better for all time and will be crowned champion of the universe. Just my household

Don't get too hung up on nitpicking each item I posted, they were just meant as examples to see similar from the Google side. Rob, thank you for pointing out a few I was unaware of, Chrome Remote Desktop is interesting. And by no means is the situation I'm in perfect. One issue I have with iCloud currently is in regards to PDFs. If I do save one to iCloud on my desktop via Preview, my iOS devices have no way to see the document.

I will note on the router example, it also applies to my extenders. Those I may not notice a problem with as quickly with the no internet situation.

Sure, I didn't mean we had to, I just wanted to emphasize my point of "whatever suits you best."

The problem with either ecosystem is that they both either break down or simply don't work if you try to combine elements. You seen it yourself, Tom. You had disastrous things happen when you tried to start using Google's services. If you start in the camp that suits you and never stray, you're going to have a mostly flawless experience. But try to put too much of a toe across into the other camp and you'll lose a leg


I can promise that it does not work as well as Airplay, and it doesn't work for as much stuff as Airplay does (it's Youtube and nothing else). However, what I do like about Google TV is not having to switch inputs. So, if we're watching TV I can send a Youtube video to the screen at any time and Youtube will automatically launch.

The only annoyance I had with it: in typical fashion, it just didn't work the way Google said it should. I had the latest version of the app on my phone and Google TV, and both devices were on my network. Because it's using DLNA, the two should have seen each other and just worked seamlessly. Instead, I had to go through the "antiquated" pairing process, and now I can do it at any time. Part of this, however, could be my slightly messed up phone (messed it up hacking some NFC stuff ).

One thing I definitely don't miss from iOS is that stupid modal window that appears:

"Unable to connect to data network".

Edit:

Or words to that effect, I can't remember the exact wording of the error.

Yes, very annoying message that. For a long time I thought it was a message from TomTom, as I only saw it when I was driving using TomTom.

They really should make that message turn-off-able, or at very least make it dismiss itself after a couple of seconds.

Android tablet owners, Flipboard has released their tablet app at last: http://flip.it/xklRs

Hopefully this is the start of a trend to make real tablet apps for Android instead of simply scaling up phone apps.

http://bgr.com/2013/01/03/nexus-4-sales-total-2012-280432/

...sure smells like they're not going all-out on production of it, which would tie into it being subsidised from some promitional budget.

That's nothing new, in that pretty much every Cr-48 was given away at great expense.

OTOH it could be component shortages too... very hard to tell!

It's still very frustrating to me that they haven't released the inductive charging dock that they announced. At least this time I didn't jump on the new phone without hesitation. My experience with the Galaxy Nexus has taught me not to assume when it comes to product support. I bought my Verizon Galaxy Nexus on launch day because I was told I'd be getting the accessories that had been announced with the phone. Turns out that us Verizon GN users got useless plastic crap instead of the legit docks.

Now I'm waiting for them to actually release that dock, then I'll jump ship to the Nexus 4.

I notice the Nexus 7 dock is still AWOL as well.

Dignan, I'm with you in shared annoyance at Verizon over their mishandling of the VZW Galaxy Nexus, which I also bought on launch day, and for which I'd also like a proper dock.

I'd say that my solution is to jump ship to a proper Nexus phone, purchased directly from Google. My Verizon lock-in doesn't end until a year from now, so I assume there will be even better Nexus phones coming soon. And, while I wait, T-Mobile will presumably be steadily building out their 4G infrastructure, to which I could then switch with a fully-paid unlocked phone. (Or I could switch to one of their MVNOs.) By then, hopefully all the pieces will be in place. Or maybe if/when the presumed successor to the Nexus 4 is announced at next summer's Google I/O, it will be so extremely awesome that I'll find a suitable way to tell Verizon to take a hike and jump early.

(Or, who knows, maybe Google and Verizon will make nice-nice with each other. Given that Google/Motorola is supplying a significant number of the Droid-branded handsets that Verizon sells, I'd think there's some opportunity for leverage in there.)

I don't particularly find the Nexus 4 to be my ultimate phone, mainly from all the stories of glass cracking, but also from the lack of LTE. Again, this will presumably be hammered out in a year.

I'm curious about whether the bargain basement prices from Google are related to the lack of supply in the market. Certainly, there's less profit there to motivate them to crank up the manufacturing engine and to gamble on the downside risks that come with over-production. (Versus: when will we start seeing fantastic firesale prices on all the unloved Windows RT tablets and when will I be able to boot Android on one?)