Some GN observations from a dual phone user.

[mrspeedmaster]

I'm a dual-phone kind of guy. I carry an iPhone and an Android phone. I get to choose which phones/tablet I want for work (which is a great perk).
The Galaxy Nexus is my 4th Android device.

Here are my impressions overall:
It is a good phone with a great screen. However, it won't replace my need to use the iPhone for work.

I like the screen. It is great. I just wished there were more apps (like a web browser) that would hide the soft buttons.
I would love to have a browser that would show the buttons with the gesture. I sort of feel cheated that I cant utilize the full 720p screen.

Now for my constructive gripes.

1) Lack of Mass Storage and MPT. I dont buy Google's explanation for ditching USB mass storage.
My hacked HP Touchpad has an internal partition that mounts drives as USB mass storage.
Why is this a problem?

My car's stereo can't recognize the GN when I plug it into the USB.

Linux/Ubuntu has issues.
[How to] Connect your Android Ice Cream Sandwich Phone to Ubuntu for File Access

I can't sync music with apps like DoubleTwist that can't use MPT.

Galaxy Nexus not recognized for Mac
My Windows7 computer can't see my Galaxy Nexus device

Basically, I can't use the GN as a music player unless I subscribe to Google's idea of just using the cloud to play music.

Why is this a big deal? Well USB mass storage has always been a big selling point of Android. I use to mount my phones and rsynch my work.
I'll have a project with 400 files with a file size about 800-900 megs. I would only synchronize maybe 10-12 files a day and it would be quick.
Now, I would have to re-copy the entire folder.

So the GN is getting close to iOS in being locked down. I guess there are wifi webdav/samba type sharing apps I can look into. This is how I rsynch with the iPhone.
The fact it doesn't play nice with my car and Linux is the biggest gripe. Even Ubuntu has great iOS device file support due to the iPhone popularity.


2) VPN. ICS promised to fix ongoing VPN issues and it doesn't look like it was fix.
IPSec VPN reboots phone when used on 3G - xda-developers
Issue 23404 - android - Reboot with IPSec Xauth PSK VPN over 3G Network at data traffic - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

For this very reason, I ***have*** to carry an iPhone always with me. I need to connect to my work and client's networks.
Along the same line, even if VPN was fixed, iOS still has better apps in terms of SSH, VNC/RDP. I've tried many and they don't compare with the ones on iOS. They simply have better apps my kind of work.

3)Battery life. This thing is horrid. I get about 4 hours. Most of the blame can be attributed to the fact I have about 6 IMAP/Exchange accounts polling every minute. With iOS, they're design to be pushed so the phone doesn't have to check for email every minute.

I suppose I can use the phone with just gmail but that is just admitting defeat. I know the phone is capable of better battery life.

This is something Google needs to work on if they want to get with the Enterprise market.
I'm not the only one complaining.
Issue 23971 - android - IMAP idle (PUSH email) is not supported in ICS, in 2012, please read. - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting
K9 mail is not acceptible for my use. I had problems with it.


Now overall, I like the phone for goofing around and playing with as a new gadget. I can't recommend it to anyone in my type of work that requires work to be done.

Things I like to see.

I really like the iOS style notifications in the lock screen. I am hoping someone can show me something in the market that has a clone of this.
Secondly, I really want a working Netflix HD. I ve seen some of the apks floating around by they don't hide the soft buttons and have stability issues.

 

[Sandroidfan]

Polling IMAP email every minute will surely suck battery on any phone. Push(automatic) polling is more efficient. I am just using Gmail and push Exchange mail at work, but my nexus seems to doing just fine with them battery wise.

 

[stenzor]

In the stock browser: Settings>Labs> check Quick Controls and Fullscreen

 

[mrspeedmaster]

In the stock browser: Settings>Labs> check Quick Controls and Fullscreen

That doesn't hide the softbuttons
. It makes them smaller but you don't get the full 1280x720

Google or.go.to whatismyscreenresolution.com
And you will.see.it is.1196x720
You still lose 80+ pixels

 

[zerocool79346]

Have the same setup for Gmail and school Exchange. That really is a bummer that the only option with IMAP is to pull. I agree, Google really needs to amend that.

 

[zerocool79346]

That doesn't hide the softbuttons
. It makes them smaller but you don't get the full 1280x720

Google or.go.to whatismyscreenresolution.com
And you will.see.it is.1196x720
You still lose 80+ pixels

I'm not sure how keen you are to rooting but there are devs at xda working on a full screen mod. It seems clunky to me, but then again, I couldn't care less about the 80 pixels lost so long as I don't have buttons making the front of my phone ugly lol. To each their own.

 

[Thai]

Does your car support BT audio streaming? If so, then that is your solution to playing music from your phone in your car. Yeah, otherwise, i guess that you have to wait for updates to allow DoubleTwist to work.

Not sure, but has iSyncr been updated for ICS?? iSyncr works better than DT for music transfer from iTunes. I would look into iSyncr.

 

[stenzor]

Yeah but there is no reason to hide those buttons.. I use the back button fairly frequently when browsing. Also, the way I think of it is I'm not losing any space because those buttons are "permanent". I just gain space when I watch videos or play games. On devices with built in buttons nobody would be complaining about losing space, and I don't think anyone should be doing it with the GN as well.

 

[Jay3]

So the GN is getting close to iOS in being locked down. I guess there are wifi webdav/samba type sharing apps I can look into. This is how I rsynch with the iPhone.

The marketplace is speaking with a thundering voice that the "locked down" way of the iPhone is "better." We're having to live with a move in that direction because of all the people who decided it was "better" in that regard. But occasionally those things cost us choices.

 

[Ben.M]

I've been on a GNex for about a month now and have been wowed by how much better than my original Galaxy S it is.

Battery: I've had far better battery life with this device than my previous 2 (Galaxy S and Blackberry Tour). On HSPA/H+ without any wifi use I can get between 12-20 hours depending on usage. When I have access to wifi that number can double. I've had very few messages and calls in the past few days and have hit 57 hours on one charge! I certainly do agree that a push email solution needs to come. I didn't know ICS didn't support it?

Syncing/File Control: I'm curious about the issues people are having. Both on my Intel Mac Mini and a Windows 7 laptop my GN shows up as a media device no problem. I can drag and drop any files/folders I want to any folder in the GN.

I still would agree that the iPhone and iOS are the way to go when you need it to "just work" with minimal fiddling. Just not my cup o' tea, and my line of work doesn't necessitate it.

 

[s.m.knipe]

Does your car support BT audio streaming? If so, then that is your solution to playing music from your phone in your car. Yeah, otherwise, i guess that you have to wait for updates to allow DoubleTwist to work.

Not sure, but has iSyncr been updated for ICS?? iSyncr works better than DT for music transfer from iTunes. I would look into iSyncr.

+1 on the iSyncr, I used it on my Atrix and it worked extremely well. I don't know if it was updated for ICS or not- 95% of my iTunes library played nicely with Google's Music Manager, and the other 5% I burned to discs and uploaded to Google Music so I have no need for it right now.

 

[Deleted User]

1) Lack of Mass Storage and MPT. I dont buy Google's explanation for ditching USB mass storage.
My hacked HP Touchpad has an internal partition that mounts drives as USB mass storage.
Why is this a problem?

You don't know what Google's explanation is, then. The Nexus S also mounts drives as USB mass storage.

The point is not that you CAN'T mount internal partitions as mass storage. Google never said you couldn't. Obviously, they know full well that you can. What they said was using a protocol like MTP provided a generally superior user experience because you didn't have to unmount the entire partition from the phone (causing some apps to stop working, features to become unavailable, music to not play, etc.) every time you plugged it into your computer.

Additionally, treating the entire chunk of internal storage as one block means that the partitions are flexible - you don't have to block off 8gb for apps just to make sure nobody hits that limit, only to have most people sitting with 4+ gb empty.

You can't do either of those things using mass storage mode. For every one person like you who uses rsync, there are a hundred people who just want to store their music and photos and don't care how they get there... but they do care if they plug their device in and the music shuts off, or if they were sold a 32gb devices only to find out that 8gb can never be used for music because it's an app partition.

Basically, I can't use the GN as a music player unless I subscribe to Google's idea of just using the cloud to play music.

No, you can't use the GN with applications and hardware that has not adapted to the new way of playing music. The only reason DoubleTwist doesn't sync is because the desktop application hasn't been updated to support MTP. It's not because Google isn't allowing it.

Well USB mass storage has always been a big selling point of Android. I use to mount my phones and rsynch my work

Completely fair. Mass Storage mode isn't going away with Android. It has just gone away on the Nexus. So you should probably buy a phone with an SD card.

The fact it doesn't play nice with my car and Linux is the biggest gripe. Even Ubuntu has great iOS device file support due to the iPhone popularity.

All you're seeing is teething problems. This method of doing things is brand new to Android. There will be updates to improve compatibility.

Most of the blame can be attributed to the fact I have about 6 IMAP/Exchange accounts polling every minute. With iOS, they're design to be pushed so the phone doesn't have to check for email every minute.

Android supports push Exchange. Why would you poll Exchange servers?

If K-9 isn't acceptable, there are other email applications around.

I really like the iOS style notifications in the lock screen. I am hoping someone can show me something in the market that has a clone of this.

The notification bar is now available in the lock screen, which is basically exactly the way iOS has it except with the addition that you have to swipe the notification bar down.

I mean, there are definitely valid complaints here - I'm not being defensive of Android. I'm just pointing out that some of them are problems with your unique style of usage (which is not going to be typical) and some are teething problems - which I would expect, given the general style of the Nexus phones. They are designed, explicitly, to be bleeding-edge Android devices. You trade off some things to get that.

 

[s.m.knipe]

Linux/Ubuntu has issues.
[How to] Connect your Android Ice Cream Sandwich Phone to Ubuntu for File Access

While I agree that the USB Mass Storage was easier (through the lens of being used to it ), have you tried updating your libmtp files in Ubuntu? Mine works fine in 11.10 AFTER I updated all the libraries. Here's a good write-up:
Linux + GNU = Humans Enabled: How To: Fix Samsung Galaxy Nexus MTP File Transfer for Ubuntu GNU/Linux 11.10

 

[mrspeedmaster]

Does your car support BT audio streaming? If so, then that is your solution to playing music from your phone in your car.

Nope. Both of my car support USB mass storage or iOS. Bluetooth isn't a real option because I want to select playlists, songs,tracks from my steering wheel / nav screen.

While I agree that the USB Mass Storage was easier (through the lens of being used to it ), have you tried updating your libmtp files in Ubuntu? Mine works fine in 11.10 AFTER I updated all the libraries. Here's a good write-up:
Linux + GNU = Humans Enabled: How To: Fix Samsung Galaxy Nexus MTP File Transfer for Ubuntu GNU/Linux 11.10

I'm on Ubuntu 10.10. I'm not a big fan of the new Unity Desktop so I have a bigger hurdle to deal with. For the time being. ADB pull/push works. I don't think pushing files one-at-a-time through the command line is an ideal way to go.

Syncing/File Control: I'm curious about the issues people are having. Both on my Intel Mac Mini and a Windows 7 laptop my GN shows up as a media device no problem. I can drag and drop any files/folders I want to any folder in the GN.

Double twists and other apps like Calibre (ebook) can't see the phone. You are seeing the device through MTP and not actually accessing the native filesystem. For example, you can't pull out the command line terminal and access the files.

Even in Windows 7, there are problems. For example, my Photo management app - Adobe LightRoom doesn't see it because it is not a mapped drive. I suppose I can export to a folder than copy that folder over but that isn't ideal because you are re-copying un-necessary files that could be synchronized.
Maybe in the future,with OSX and Linux, you can at least use FUSE and map it as physical path.

 

[s.m.knipe]

I'm on Ubuntu 10.10. I'm not a big fan of the new Unity Desktop so I have a bigger hurdle to deal with. For the time being. ADB pull/push works. I don't think pushing files one-at-a-time through the command line is an ideal way to go.

uninstall gMTP, then try going through building the most current libmtp library (10.10 is almost certainly at least a generation of libmtp behind) following that guide. To my knowledge there aren't any dependencies that would have an issue doing this on a 10.10 box. Then re-install gMTP.

MTP is still rather slow overall though (vs the old drag and drop)

 

[mrspeedmaster]

uninstall gMTP, then try going through building the most current libmtp library (10.10 is almost certainly at least a generation of libmtp behind) following that guide. To my knowledge there aren't any dependencies that would have an issue doing this on a 10.10 box. Then re-install gMTP.

MTP is still rather slow overall though (vs the old drag and drop)

It isn't really an option for me because I would have to do to all my Ubuntu servers. Before, I would carry my VMs and plug my phone into my hypervisor and copy VM images or other files. I guess, i should invest in some USB sticks instead and have another thing I can loose from my pockets.

Completely fair. Mass Storage mode isn't going away with Android. It has just gone away on the Nexus. So you should probably buy a phone with an SD card.

All you're seeing is teething problems. This method of doing things is brand new to Android. There will be updates to improve compatibility.

I didn't expect the MTP be an issue for until I tried to plug in my phone to my 55" inch Samsung LCD TV's USB port to view photos. I don't think hardware manufactures like car companies, stereo companies or tv sets to adopt MTP anytime in the near future.

The phone is becoming more a "want than a need." I like to be on the cutting edge. I like the phone. I just dropped a 4GB 1080p movie and was thoroughly impressed.

 

[s.m.knipe]

It isn't really an option for me because I would have to do to all my Ubuntu servers. Before, I would carry my VMs and plug my phone into my hypervisor and copy VM images or other files. I guess, i should invest in some USB sticks instead and have another thing I can loose from my pockets.

Ah okay, gotcha.

 

[Deleted User]

It isn't really an option for me because I would have to do to all my Ubuntu servers. Before, I would carry my VMs and plug my phone into my hypervisor and copy VM images or other files. I guess, i should invest in some USB sticks instead and have another thing I can loose from my pockets.

Not that it has anything to do with the phone problem, but I keep these on my keychains:

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Talent-Pico-C-STU16GPCS-Silver/dp/B001PPPIYM/

Super tiny, fits right on the keychain so I always have it. Waterproof and rugged, so it's virtually impossible to destroy. Pretty damn fast, too. I also use them on my hypervisors that don't have internal SD cards. Install VMWare right on the USB drive and they're small enough that clumsy people don't knock them out of the servers.