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VZW Nexus No longer a "Developer Phone"

I don't think we will see bloat on the GNex after getting all the clarifications/statements from Google last night. THey are still owning the software builds.

My only question is, why now? The Nexus S 4G has been out there for months, and was "supported" the entire time until now. The GNex was "supported" for two months. I understand Google's explanation, but nothing has changed, so this should have been the story all along. I still wonder if some sort of breakdown with Verizon has occured to trigger Google re-evaluating its CDMA policy.
 
Honestly, IMO it is Google's lawyers that forced the change. They have been looking at all of their user agreements and policies and have been very carefully rewriting them all. The privacy policy that was a big stink was nothing new either-- just reworded and clarified and turned 60 documents into 1.
 
swagner53 said:
Honestly, IMO it is Google's lawyers that forced the change. They have been looking at all of their user agreements and policies and have been very carefully rewriting them all. The privacy policy that was a big stink was nothing new either-- just reworded and clarified and turned 60 documents into 1.
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Interesting thought.
 
This is really interesting and confusing.

I have compiled 4.0.3 without doing anything special, no signing or anything just to see as a test if I was able to do it and a learning experience, and the phone worked fine in terms of making calls and having data. The only thing I was missing was gps and I think camera, since those you do need the proprietary drivers from samsung.

So I don't understand their technical answer. According to them if I were to build AOSP for my cdma phone it should not have worked in terms of making calls and getting data?
 
I'm thinking maybe other CDMA-based phones moving forward, they might not work, and that maybe it's device-specific, and a crap-shoot as to how it works for people trying? I would imagine devs will always find a way though
 
I thought AndroidUser00110001's comment in this post was the best explanation of Friday's news:
On this subject, what Google is saying is kind of the opposite of what is going on.

In Dan Morrill's post he states:

For various technical reasons, recent CDMA Android devices implement core telephony functionality in .apk files provided in binary form by the carriers. To function correctly, these .apk files must be signed by the so-called
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MEh, I'm rooted and Rommed... I'll get my updates from devs before they are released anyway (in most cases.)
 
The biggest concern of mine is not the fate of my dear GNex, but the chances of ever getting another, as I am stuck with Verizon. It seems that at least until CDMA has been completely phased out, VZW will not see another Nexus.
 
AntimonyER said:
The biggest concern of mine is not the fate of my dear GNex, but the chances of ever getting another, as I am stuck with Verizon. It seems that at least until CDMA has been completely phased out, VZW will not see another Nexus.
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All it would take is to do what Apple did: install a dual band chipset, one that integrates pentaband GSM, with CDMA.

Unfortunately, the fact that there is almost no overlap in LTE frequencies means that someone is going to have to come up with a hell of a chip to have a "global" LTE phone. So the problem may be getting worse, not better.
 
binary visions said:
All it would take is to do what Apple did: install a dual band chipset, one that integrates pentaband GSM, with CDMA.

Unfortunately, the fact that there is almost no overlap in LTE frequencies means that someone is going to have to come up with a hell of a chip to have a "global" LTE phone. So the problem may be getting worse, not better.
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Well the key isn't so much the frequency differences, as the LTE protocols enforced by the FCC. It is much closer to a GSM environment than a CDMA environment, and so having a fully supported device on Verizon once they switch over to LTE doesn't require Google getting the proprietary binaries like it does for CDMA. Which is what Google has been saying is the problem all along.
 
Gotcha. I was under the assumption that Google was only going to support one chipset/driver set as the pure developer phone, and that any other versions were sort of secondary to the primary "developer phone."
 
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