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Android Verizon

Verizon's Galaxy Nexus To Launch Tomorrow 123

Posted by samzenpus from the brand-new-stuff dept.
zacharye writes "Verizon Wireless on Wednesday finally announced the upcoming launch of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The world's first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone with 4G LTE support will become available beginning tomorrow for $299.99 with a new two-year service agreement. "
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Verizon's Galaxy Nexus To Launch Tomorrow More

Verizon's Galaxy Nexus To Launch Tomorrow

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  • I've been hearing for a while now about the upcoming release of ICS.

    About damn time.

    • Well, let me correct that...this IS /.

      I've been hearing for a while now about the upcoming release of the first phone running ICS.

      • And dammit, I'm only counting 4G/LTE phones.

        3g is SO last year.

      • Re:About damn time (Score:5, Informative)

        by JLavezzo ( 161308 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @09:45PM (#38379554) Homepage

        Well, let me correct that...this IS /.

        I've been hearing for a while now about the upcoming release of the first phone running ICS, *in the US*.
        Europe, Canada, and Australia have already had it.

        • Re:About damn time (Score:4, Insightful)

          by mjwx ( 966435 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @11:39PM (#38380142)

          Well, let me correct that...this IS /.

          I've been hearing for a while now about the upcoming release of the first phone running ICS, *in the US*.
          Europe, Canada, and Australia have already had it.

          Blame Verizon and your crappy telco rackets.

          Verizon, being a CDMA carrier requires a special version for them where as Australia, Europe and Canada use GSM, some variant of the four bands the phoneis capable of using (830/900/1900/2100) so the same version can be shipped to all both continents and the mooseheads

          • It's not just Verizon. We didn't get the Galaxy S II on ANY of our carriers until Months after Europe had them. That's even on our GSM carriers (AT&T and T-Mobile). Each carrier had to have the phone slightly modified (rounder corners, slightly wider, etc) so they would have a 'special' version of the phone. All our carriers suck, regardless of the frequencies they use or wireless protocol.

  • Posting from a galaxy nexus, just buy it separately. Or do the usaian plans not work that way? The phone is really great.

    Btw what's wrong with the marketing department of Samsung/Google? There is a Nexus, a Nexus S, a Galaxy S and now a Galaxy Nexus. Pretty confusing if you ask me.

    • Re:just buy it separate (Score:5, Informative)

      by icebike ( 68054 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @06:02PM (#38377170)

      Buying it separately (if you can afford it) is a pretty good Idea, as long as you are on a GSM network. Canadian/Euro unlocked models will work on AT&T and T-Mobile.

      The advantage is you can have the full Nexus experience including carrier un-detectable tethering, and Google Wallet with NFC support.

      Google Wallet, which was the principal reason this phone was designed and built by Samsung for Google was banned by VZW in a stunning stab in the back to Google.

      Further, this banning may be in direct violation of their 700mhz spectrum licensing conditions [wikipedia.org], one of which was free use of any application on 700mhz bands. Verizon uses 700mhz spectrum for LTE.

      It remains to be seen if anyone will call Verizon to task for this, of if they have lined enough pockets in Washington to escape this requirement.

      • Tether detector can see your DNS requests (Score:5, Informative)

        by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepplesNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @06:14PM (#38377330) Homepage Journal

        carrier un-detectable tethering

        If your user agent is that of a desktop browser, you will be detected. And even if you use HTTPS for everything, a carrier's tether detector can still see your DNS requests. If you connect to popular PC operating systems' update servers, you will be detected. If you view a lot of popular web sites that have a mobile version without getting redirected to the mobile version, you will be detected. If you visit popular Flash sites (e.g. Newgrounds, Kongregate, Weebl's Stuff, FarmVille) without having bought a phone that supports Flash from the carrier, you will be detected.

        • Re:Tether detector can see your DNS requests (Score:5, Insightful)

          by CSFFlame ( 761318 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @06:19PM (#38377400)
          Firefox mobile can spoof User agent as a desktop to avoid the crippled mobile versions of sites. User agent proves nothing. TTL can be tricky though.

          • So can the ICS built in browser which is much faster and more stable than Firefox's (thus far) horrendous effort on the mobile.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by mjwx ( 966435 )

            Firefox mobile can spoof User agent as a desktop to avoid the crippled mobile versions of sites. User agent proves nothing. TTL can be tricky though.

            So can the default browser in Cyanogen mod. I can spoof Iphone, Ipad, Desktop Chrome and a few others.

            But proof is not a requirement, it's not like they have a consumer protection agency to be afraid of. If they simply suspect you are tethering, they'll punish.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward

          VPN. At least if you have an IPSEC vpn instead of openvpn, phones support it directly.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tepples ( 727027 )
            How does the monthly price of a commercial VPN proxy compare to the monthly price of the tethering rider?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by icebike ( 68054 )

              free is a good price.
              Shop around.

            • How does the monthly price of a commercial VPN proxy compare to the monthly price of the tethering rider?

              Someone might be using a VPN for other things though too.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by izomiac ( 815208 )
              VPNs are either free, $36/year if you want 100 Mbit speeds and no data cap, or the cost of your time if you run a server yourself. Some providers also allow multiple connections for the same price. Tethering, IIRC, is ~$30 per phone for 5 GB. That said, the phone company won't really care what you're doing if you are using dozens of gigabytes of bandwidth per month, they'll find some reason to disconnect/throttle/charge you.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rich0 ( 548339 )

            How on android can you actually configure the phone to direct all traffic through the VPN? Every time I've tried it the phone won't make the VPN the default route, so internet traffic goes out in the clear...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by icebike ( 68054 )

          If your user agent is that of a desktop browser, you will be detected. And even if you use HTTPS for everything, a carrier's tether detector can still see your DNS requests.

          DNS requests do not carry user agent info,

          You have to assume that the carriers have time for deep packet inspection on every user. That really isn't the case. (Half of them are too clueless anyway).

          You can tether a wifi only tablet to a cell phone and they can't tell a thing, as long as you don't fire up a carrier's teather app.

          Second, you can adjust (or eliminate) the user agent string both on the phone and the laptop. Some Android browsers come with this feature built in [dolphin-browser.com].

          Third, the carrier is not going

        • you will be detected

          Well, you can be detected, but it is vanishingly unlikely that anything will be done if you don't rape the system. I've tethered wirelessly to my Android phone on numerous occasions, and I've never triggered anything because I used it to do some light surfing, not to bittorrent the collected works of Alfred Hitchcock.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Google Wallet with NFC support.

        As an owner of Galaxy Nexus in U.S. on AT&T, that's not true - NFC is there, but wallet is not. The phone doesn't come with Wallet app out of the box, and it doesn't show up in the market if you search. If you obtain a direct link [android.com] to the app from elsewher, it opens it in the Market app, but download button is disabled, and there is a banner on top saying "This item is not available on your carrier".

        My brief investigation leads me to conclude that Google Wallet is an exclusive deal with Sprint, and only

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by icebike ( 68054 )

          But you can side load it, (or so the report goes).

          Your Galaxy Nexus is not a native AT&T model (since there is none). So you might be seeing a block imposed by the fact the phone was imported from Canada or Europe or something, where Google Wallet is not available.

          But ignoring that, the GSM models don't use the 700mhz band, don't support LTE (yet) and don't fall under the licensing provisions from that spectrum sale.

          • Your Galaxy Nexus is not a native AT&T model (since there is none). So you might be seeing a block imposed by the fact the phone was imported from Canada or Europe or something, where Google Wallet is not available.

            The phone is imported from UK (purchased from Clove). However, Android Market doesn't do region check based on the origin of the phone, but rather its current geographic location (at least that has been the case with my previous Android phones - Nexus One and EU version of Galaxy S2). So this isn't because the phone is from EU, it's because I'm on AT&T and not Sprint. The banner also makes it clear by referring to "your operator", rather than "your country".

            Side-loading may indeed be possible, if they d

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by Andy Dodd ( 701 )

              I don't know about the GNex, but sideloading hacks were confirmed to get Google Wallet working for the non-Sprint Nexus S.

      • I was under the impression that Google Wallet with NFC wasn't available on any US phone aside from maybe the Nexus S on Sprint? You'll still be able to hack on Wallet to a VZW Nexus just like you'll have to hack it on to any other unsupported phone with NFC. Honestly though I would expect eventually this year we'll see Wallet available in the Market to any compatible phone.

    • Only T-Mobile has plans designed for this (Score:5, Informative)

      by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepplesNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @06:23PM (#38377482) Homepage Journal
      In the United States, only T-Mobile itemizes the cost of the device and the service on the bill, and once your 2-year contract expires, the line item for the phone loan drops off the bill. The January 2012 issue of Consumer Reports applauded T-Mobile for its transparency in this respect (p. 36). The other GSM carrier (AT&T) charges the same per month whether you take the subsidized phone or bring your own phone that was bought separately, and an AT&T representative appeared genuinely surprised that T-Mobile would even offer a discount for bringing one's own phone. But I have trouble wholeheartedly recommending T-Mobile for three reasons: its coverage isn't as wide, its 3G data uses a band that most phones bought separately don't support, and AT&T still hasn't fully abandoned plans to acquire T-Mobile USA.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Andy Dodd ( 701 )

        Yup. If it weren't for the coverage and band support issue, I probably would've swapped to T-Mobile long ago.

        The problem is that any non-subsidized phone you might buy doesn't support their 3G bands, and at least back in 2008, ANY phone you bought would not work AT ALL for at least 15 miles from my place of work/employment. It was so bad that putting a T-Mobile SIM into an unlocked AT&T phone would cause that phone to be blacklisted with AT&T's towers for about 15 minutes, even after putting an AT

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Posting from a galaxy nexus, just buy it separately. Or do the usaian plans not work that way? The phone is really great.

      Btw what's wrong with the marketing department of Samsung/Google? There is a Nexus, a Nexus S, a Galaxy S and now a Galaxy Nexus. Pretty confusing if you ask me.

      It depends. Here in Canada, the only way to get a Galaxy Nexus is through Bell or Virgin Mobile, and neither will sell it without a contract. It's $160 with mandatory 3 year contract - you're not allowed to buy it outright or on a

      • Virgin will let you buy it on a supertab, which you can then pay off immediatly, well, after some time talking to a customer care rep. After you pay off the tab, cancel your plan and find another carrier. Kind of a pain but doable.

  • at 2:55 PST, when I go to

    www.verizonwireless.com/galaxynexus

    which is at the end of their press release, it simply redirects to a mostly-empty page.

    Also, if you simply look for the Nexus in the phones, it's not there either...

  • SFGate review of the Nexus - "Delicious, indeed" (Score:4, Informative)

    by G3ckoG33k ( 647276 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @06:31PM (#38377612)

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/14/financial/f150316S91.DTL [sfgate.com]

    "[...] the Galaxy Nexus can record high-definition videos in 1080p — the best resolution you can get on a consumer camera. I had some fun taking sunset videos with a time-lapse feature, and there are some goofy filming effects to play around with, too."

    "Generally, though, the Galaxy Nexus is a well-rounded smartphone that serves up a noticeably freshened-up version of Android with sleek hardware. Delicious, indeed."

    • You left one part out:

      Using both T-Mobile's standard 3G and speedier HSPA+ networks, at least, I got about three hours and 15 minutes out of the Galaxy Nexus for surfing the Web, streaming a movie, sending instant messages, chatting on the phone and other activities. The phone got quite warm with all this use. Over Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network, it's possible that the phone's battery would drain even faster if you're doing a lot of downloading.

  • Pros and Cons (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @06:38PM (#38377710)
    The pros and cons, at least as far as i've heard.

    Pros:
    It's got ICS, ahead of everything else.
    It's a Nexus device, which means it won't have any carrier skins or pre-installed crap (including CarrierIQ) and it will be updated in a timely manner with each new release of Android that it's capable of running.
    It's got a high end chip with a dual core, putting it in a small class of mobile phones.
    It's got a very large screen.

    Cons:
    It's got a very large screen. I'm not sure if the phone will actually fit in my pocket.
    It's got ICS, which is great overall but i'm unsure about the lack of a global Menu button. [slashdot.org]
    It's made out of plastic rather than a nice metal case like my Nexus One has. Some people have reported it feels kind of flimsy because of that.
    It has no expandable memory, you're stuck with the 16/32 GB you start with.
    It doesn't have Google Wallet (in the US.) I'm not sure if i want to use Google Wallet to pay for my groceries or whatever, but i'm not sure that i _won't_ want to do that in the future either.

    Unknowns:
    It is (so far) exclusive to Verizon in the US. I'm currently on T-Mobile and don't want to switch... unless the T-Mobile/AT&T deal goes through that is...
    I'm not sure if it's possible to get an unlocked version, unless you're willing to import it from Europe. Which might let me use it on T-Mobile depending on the frequencies but certainly doesn't help with the price.
    It only has a 5 MP camera. I don't actually care about the MP per se (it's already greater than the resolution of an HD screen after all) but they don't really give you any other specs to go by so i don't know how else to judge it.

    Of course the biggest pro in my personal book is that my Nexus One is getting a little long in the tooth (in particular it has no space left for new apps) and i'm not sure how long i'm willing to wait for the next Nexus device. It's either that or get another high end phone that i can root and install Cyanogen on.

    • Re:Pros and Cons (Score:5, Informative)

      by lightversusdark ( 922292 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @07:44PM (#38378548) Journal
      I've had one for a couple of weeks. UK GSM model (the "real" one : yakju/maguro).

      Very happy. Replaced my N1 which finally gave up its power button after 18 months.

      Pentaband radio works great on T-Mobile & AT&T.

      Camera's better than the N1 - the speed it takes shots makes me happier than any extra MP, I think the pictures look great.

      I'm not fussed about the expandability, although I only have 16GB (13.33GB formatted, it would appear). I've spent the last year and a half dealing with a 512MB application partition, so I don't really see the problem. USB mount handling is a bit surprising, especially as I'm on a Mac. I haven't bothered to install "Android Mount" or whatever Google are offering for download yet. Just using DropBox, and iPhoto picks up the device when in "Camera Mode".

      It's real thin and it doesn't feel as good as the N1 or an iPhone, but this thing is going in a case. It fits in my pocket with my other phone, a Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro.

      I had the SE X10 Mini Pro and the N1 for the last year, and in the last month upgraded both of them. I still find myself using the Sony more because of the real keyboard.

      The only complaints I have about the Galaxy Nexus so far is that the screen is so big, I don't find it comfortable to use the on-screen keyboard in landscape. I have to stretch to reach the middle if I am typing with two thumbs. Speakerphone's not the best. Headphone jack is on the bottom, which totally tripped me out when I got it out of the box, but actually turns out not to matter at all (and is kind of neater in a cheapo dashboard gripper). I am very impressed with the battery life so far, but nothing comes close to the Mini Pro (normally 3-4 days). I am a fairly heavy user of my devices.

      The wierdest thing is that the lump on the bottom, it just feels like it should be at the top and I still take it out of my pocket upside down every time. I'll get over that.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by deep9x ( 1068252 )
        Just got my GSM one today, and this is about my experience so far. I am having a lot more trouble, and concern, over mounting the internal storage, as I run Linux. I tried libmtp, but it just timed out, though I could at least see the files on my device. Some experimentation needed. Plus, no flash or Google Wallet yet, which is odd. Going to the Google Wallet site says that it's exclusive to Sprint Nexus S phones still, I hope they fix that for those of us who told Verizon to go to hell and went with Googl

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Zebedeu ( 739988 )

        The wierdest thing is that the lump on the bottom, it just feels like it should be at the top and I still take it out of my pocket upside down every time. I'll get over that.

        A friend of mine taught me to always keep the phone upside down in the pocket. This way, he said, when you pull the phone out of your pocket it's already upright in your hand.
        It took me a while to get used to it, but now I can see how it's a more convenient way of carrying your phone.

        Oh and thanks for the mini-review. I'm seriously considering getting one for myself or the GF. I've been reading a few reviews online, but it's nice to hear from a regular person.

    • It's got a very large screen. I'm not sure if the phone will actually fit in my pocket.

      Just anecdotally the screen is bigger the same size as the Galaxy S II. I thought the same thing about my girlfriend's SGSII, but I find it fits comfortably in pockets, is much thinner and lighter than an iPhone, and the extra screen size is quite welcome when surfing the web. The critical part is it's a change in aspect ratio so it's not actually much fatter than these already large phones. Time will tell.

      This monstrosity [wikipedia.org] on the other hand ...

      It's got ICS, which is great overall but i'm unsure about the lack of a global Menu button. [slashdot.org]

      This seems to be more of an issues for legacy apps and for what

    • It only has a 5 MP camera. I don't actually care about the MP per se (it's already greater than the resolution of an HD screen after all) but they don't really give you any other specs to go by so i don't know how else to judge it.

      The spec you want is LENSE SIZE. You can tell at a glance if it's decent, or crap. The problem being that a decent lense takes lots of space, and sticks way out. With any luck, you can find a case that'll even that out...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Yev000 ( 985549 )

      Had it for about a month now in UK.

      Large screen is very comfortable, it also smudges a lot less than the N1.
      I got the unlocked version for £530 and have a £17.5/m plan (1 month rolling) so the phone should pay for itself in 16 months.

      A couple of things you may want to know about the GN:
      Lack of menu button is not an issue as it does appear for most apps. The only one that takes a little getting used to is the stock browser app that for some unknown reason accesses the menu via a different mechani

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It only has a 5 MP camera. I don't actually care about the MP per se (it's already greater than the resolution of an HD screen after all) but they don't really give you any other specs to go by so i don't know how else to judge it.

      The problem with phones is that they are too thin so you just can't have the kind of optics you need to take a good photo in there.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Andy Dodd ( 701 )

        Even with good optics, the physical sensor is just too small to perform well.

        8MP in a smartphone sensor is just way too much except in bright daylight.

        It's why Canon DROPPED the pixel count of their flagship P&S cameras from 14 megapixels down to 10 when going from the G10 to G11 - (or was it G9 to G10?) - photographers complained about the poor noise performance and dynamic range of the 14MP sensor.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Andy Dodd ( 701 )

      People need to figure out that plastic != cheap/flimsy.

      Properly chosen plastics can be EXTREMELY durable (think ABS and Delrin) - and past Samsungs show it. They "feel" flimsy because they're light - but the plastic has enough flex not to dent OR crack, and the lightness means it has less momentum when it hits something.

      But again - not everyone can choose plastics properly. For example, third-party battery covers for Samsung devices (such as those required for extended batteries) are often made of a clear

      • Mod parent up. This isn't 1950, plastics have come a long way and are often the far superior choice for materials. (Coincidentally I was listening to the Kinks' "Plastic Man" on my way to work this morning.)

  • Compared to the original Nexus, the new one has no physical keyboard, no hardware buttons along the bottom, no 4-directional controller, and no SD card slot--just like the iPhone. Now, can people quit whining about how Apple stole Android's notification system?

  • After the horrific problems with Samsung's Fascinate, I'm going to pass. I don't buy phones from companies who take the fire-and-forget approach with phone launches.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Andy Dodd ( 701 )

      Blame Verizon, not Samsung. Verizon is almost as bad as AT&T about holding back updates.

      To see that the blame lies squarely with the carrier, look at the AT&T Captivate vs. the Samsung GT-I9000 (International Galaxy S) - These phones were so close that I9000 kernels could be successfully run on the Captivate without any modifications (not even recompiling the source with a different defconfig!) All you had to do was change one keylayout file for full functionality.

      Yet despite this - the Captivate

  • I don't know if I can afford Galaxy Nexus, but I am looking forward to get ICS firmware update for my Nexus S.
  • I've been enjoying my Galaxy Nexus in the U.S. for a week now on the T-Mobile network. I ordered it from the UK and got it in 48 hours. Tethering works without issues. So good to be contract-free. It's a great phone, big minus is the lack of SD card slot but everything else is pretty near perfect.

  • ...with free overnight delivery, if anyone is interested. I want to go play with one before I make a final decision, but for the impatient ones that can't get to a store, there ya go.

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