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I was apparently Wrong about Google and Android

rushmore

rushmore

Extreme Android User
Just when I thought after KitKat released that Google was trying to be more "Apple-like" and should maybe change their name to Gapple, I read some dev discussion and am finding the exact opposite. This is a copy/paste from an article, but summarizes several pages of information very well. Simple summary is Google appears to be listening to users and manufacturers and are embracing sd in their framework design. If anybody has kept up with Google devs since the G1, they were very vocal haters of external storage.


Better Storage Framework:
In KitKat, Google introduced a few radical changes to the way storage in general and, in particular, SD Cards worked. Developers complained about the restrictive new storage framework, which broke SD Card support for a bunch of apps and overall was just more limited and not as robust. The good news is that the storage framework is getting a few enhancements in Android L which should take care of this problem for developers, granting full read/write access to directories and subdirectories, and allowing developers to group together file operations. This potentially adds more solid SD card support and may very well fix the current annoyances that developers have with the OS. Seeing as Android will be officially supporting devices with SD Cards in the future, it’s expected to see more and more robust support as the framework keeps getting better.

http://droidlessons.com/top-5-background-improvements-in-android-l/
 
Meh, i'll believe it when i see a new Nexus with an SD slot. or better yet, more consistent support across the Nexus line.

Until there is perfectly stable, fast internet across the planet, there is just no way the majority of users will trade their MicroSD slot for the 'cloud'. Google continues to make lousy excuses that only an iPhone user would believe. my guess is that they want to bring over Apple users and could care less about the ones who got them this far in the first place.
 
I thought I would miss my SD card slot last year when I replaced my Galaxy with a Nexus 4. I haven't yet. I guess 16 GB is enough for me, as I've never used more than 10 GB. I just have apps and some music on the device. I don't need 200 hours worth of tunes on my phone, nor do I need a bazillion apps(actually, I kind of enjoy the space constriction for that, it keeps my app drawer clean).
 
i do prefer keeping tons of MP3's offline though just to have interruption-free music when i walk or drive, which is not exactly prime coverage even for VZW. cloud-storage options such as Play Music don't work as an alternative due to it eating into my data plan and often stopping to 're-buffer' off and on which becomes annoying really quickly.

i prefer to have my entire music libary on my phone which necessitates a storage card. having some songs and not all let's see what happens when i want to listen to the song that's not on my phone? have to download it. let's see, my only internet option here is my 4G LTE plan. see the problem? i'm either eating my data part of the time, all the time or have no access to my media. no thanks.

Apps? aside the games i play on one tablet it's not like i got tons. i do have videos and music though and prefer offline copies to save data and avoid needing a stable internet connection should i choose to, say watch Batman Returns one night.
 
That's true. Different people have different needs. That's the beauty of Android.

Now, I would not complain if my phone had an SD card slot. I quite enjoyed it on my Samsung, but I learned that some things are not as big of a deal breaker as I thought before. I still haven't decided what my next device will be. I have another year to think about it(I promised myself I'd keep the Nexus 4 for 2 years after breaking the Galaxy in only 1).
 
I keep around 3500 MP3s on my SD, which quite a few hours of music, along with some audio books and podcasts. Storing them in a cloud is just not feasible or practical for me, and certainly not with all the international travelling I've been doing in the last couple of months.

Just before I bought my current phone, I was considering a Nexus 5, but in the end decided that 16GB internal and no SD wouldn't be suitable for my requirements.
 
32GB is the minimum for me.

And an SD Card is required to hold my Music and Camera Data, as well as downloads, etc. I pop a 16GB Class 10 Ultra SD Card in there and don't have to worry about storage.

If you take a lot of Pictures and Videos with your camera, and want to carry around a decent amount of music, 16GB gets hard to manage real quick, especially when you factor in Apps/App Data/Caches and the fact that you can forget about 5-6GB of that storage out of the box because the OS reserves that much for the System.

I see enough people complaining about storage on their 16GB iPhones to bother with a device with such little amount of storage and no external storage on top of it.
 
I would rather have an SD slot I'd never use than not have it at all when I do. Google's issue with including the option makes no sense. If one doesn't need the external storage, just leave the slot empty. There is simply no justification for not having it at all. But just try to change Google's mind about it. Despite tons of Nexus owners clamouring for the slot, Google, much like Apple, doesn't care.

So yes, people are different. Google, on the other hand, doesn't quite see it that way. To them, no one wants or needs an SD slot. Everyone, to them, has stable, unlimited 4G coverage and can rely on the cloud.
 
nickdalzell said:
So yes, people are different. Google, on the other hand, doesn't quite see it that way. To them, no one wants or needs an SD slot. Everyone, to them, has stable, unlimited 4G coverage and can rely on the cloud.
Click to expand...

Well yeh, I really get the idea that they don't see much of the real world outside of the Googleplex, Mountain View, CA.
 
nickdalzell said:
I would rather have an SD slot I'd never use than not have it at all when I do. Google's issue with including the option makes no sense. If one doesn't need the external storage, just leave the slot empty. There is simply no justification for not having it at all. But just try to change Google's mind about it. Despite tons of Nexus owners clamouring for the slot, Google, much like Apple, doesn't care.

So yes, people are different. Google, on the other hand, doesn't quite see it that way. To them, no one wants or needs an SD slot. Everyone, to them, has stable, unlimited 4G coverage and can rely on the cloud.
Click to expand...


I am not storing purchased books in any cloud. The booksellers can be challenged to take books away under DMCA. I bought the book, legally, before the trouble and it's the seller's problem as far as I'm concerned.
I don't share. If I don't have to return a banned hard copy book, I don't see why I'd have to return a digital.

What I want a card for:
Do you realize how many files are in an astronomy program? I must have 5 apps and the data would go on a card. The cloud is useless in some observing areas. There is no signal. Google doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that a dark sky and the Milky Way could have more appeal than digital.
The Colorado Plateau is a whole 'nother animal. If you get behind the rocks and can't see the LaSals, you don't have coverage no matter what carrier. You need satellite GPS. No 4G or LTE.

I bought Sibley Birds and it took 3 hours to download. If I can back this up to a card, then to computer, would save time if reset needed.
 
kate said:
Do you know if they will include this SD card support in updates to KitKat as well?
Click to expand...

I would expect not, since the L framework apparently is designed for the support, based on the mining the Google dev forums. The summary in the article also seems to have read it this way too.

Frankly, I never bought Google's security excuse for Kitkat in the first place, so we need to see what actually pans out. Hence me putting "apparently" wrong in the title ;)
 
To be quite honest. Putting them in and then using a secure file system on them is better than simply not having them there. My opinion. Yes. Interoperability will suffer, but it's nonexistent if you don't have the slot.
 
I'll be more than happy to see SD cards come back(and to some extent, it appears they are). It's an option I would never say no to. But I found the benefits vs cost on the Nexus to be better than the Samsung Galaxy so I was willing to forgo the card.
 
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