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New York, 4:17 PM
Fri Dec 18
68 posts in the last 24 hours

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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of jin.shanks jin.shanks
    12/15/09

    In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
    You can actually hide your facebook friends list.

    Click Settings -> Privacy Settings -> Profile-> Basic -> Friends
    ->Customize...

    under Customize you have to add your groups you have made or people you do not want seeing your friend list to the except these list.
     Reply
    Ryan Tate approved this comment jin.shanks was starred jin.shanks was unstarred
    Image of Ryan Tate Ryan Tate
    12/15/09

    @jin.shanks: Jim, I have no "Basic" under Privacy-Profile, nor is there any listing for my friends list. Can you email me a screenshot? ryan@valleywag.com
     Reply
    Ryan Tate was starred Ryan Tate was unstarred
    Image of OrbitalGun OrbitalGun
    12/01/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    This would be perfect for me. I recently picked up an HTC Hero from Sprint, and the first thing I did was grab the Google Voice app and set it to replace all of the normal phone functions (voice, SMS, voicemail), so it's like my Sprint number doesn't even exist. I work in a solid steel building, and data signals from Sprint's network can barely penetrate. So it's great having my phone set up to use the building's wireless, letting me make calls from areas that are complete dead zones for everyone else.
     Reply
    Edited by OrbitalGun at 12/01/09 3:12 PM OrbitalGun was starred OrbitalGun was unstarred
    Image of ptc ptc
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    @tande04: thanks for your commentary. I learned more from your comments here than I've been able to gather in a year on my own.
     Reply
    tande04 promoted this comment ptc was starred ptc was unstarred
    Image of tande04 tande04
    12/01/09

    @ptc: Sarcasm O_o ?

    Either way thanks!
     Reply
    tande04 was starred tande04 was unstarred
    Image of Yerzriknot Yerzriknot
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    Great, right when I was about to buy the Droid. Oh well I guess I can wait longer.
     Reply
    Yerzriknot was starred Yerzriknot was unstarred
    Image of HalfJoey HalfJoey
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    I've always hoped we would get a nice Android phone that just requires a data plan. So you pay $30-50 a month for unlimited talk, data, text, and navigation. Its the requirement of talk+data plans that seem to make smart phones too expensive for a lot of people. The would hurt a lot of current cell phone companies and hopefully kick the ass of GPS companies.
     Reply
    Mark Wilson promoted this comment HalfJoey was starred HalfJoey was unstarred
    Image of qrius qrius
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    Seems like Android is going the way of Windows with multiple versions...

    /95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/Win7

    1.5/1.5 with Sense/1.5 with Blur/1.6/2.0/"real" android...

    This will make it harder for the Market to really thrive - too many versions. Hoping for a complete roll-up into 2.0 soon so that the Market can thrive (w/o the need to test apps on mult versions)
     Reply
    Mark Wilson promoted this comment Edited by qrius at 11/30/09 1:12 PM qrius was starred qrius was unstarred
    Image of celery celery
    11/30/09

    @qrius: It sounds a lot worse--that's 8 versions of Windows over 15 years, and most of them are EOL-ed, as opposed to 5 (6?) versions of Android in two years. Not too thrilled about that...
     Reply
    celery was starred celery was unstarred
    Image of ermothoothyp ermothoothyp
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    Google could build a simple, straightforward, free device, make a billion in order to get costs as low as possible, and release it worldwide, all in the name of collecting obscene amounts of user data along the way. But they’re going to do this anyway with Android and Chrome and all their web apps, without giving away a piece of loss-leading hardware.

    More likely is the possibility of a Google Plan as a free, lower-bandwidth alternative to plans from Verizon and AT&T. People worry far too much about the price of the device itself, as if the difference between plunking down $100 and $200 at the store means anything when you’re contractually signing away $2,400 on the spot (a two year contract at $100/month). Based on that knowledge, carriers subsidize the price of a device as long as you sign their hefty contract; seen this way, many phones today are already “free.” Therefore, it’s not the the device that matters. It’s the service. And it’s going to be free.

    More at:
    [nofilmschool.com]
     Reply
    tande04 approved this comment ermothoothyp was starred ermothoothyp was unstarred
    Image of tande04 tande04
    11/30/09

    @ermothoothyp: That actually makes a lot of sense. I hadn't even thought about subsidizing the service.
     Reply
    tande04 was starred tande04 was unstarred
    Image of Poop Cooper Poop Cooper
    11/30/09

    @ermothoothyp: What I would personally love to see Google do, and it's something that only Google is large enough to try and crazy enough to attempt, is selling the phone at a high base price and offering the service for free for an indeterminate amount of time to follow. So you buy yourself a Google Phone for, say, $700, but afterward the service is free (for at least maybe the first few years, but this being a hypothetical, let's pretend this could go on forever.)

    The benefits for Google is that there are no contracts, no need for underwriters, no need for creating an entire customer service infrastructure for things like contract disputes or bill collectors or anything like that - it's a single transaction and that's it.

    It's the sort of thing that would shake-up the entire industry and change the way we think about our cell providers, in the same way Google's shaken up industries with its GPS and Voice applications.
     Reply
    Poop Cooper was starred Poop Cooper was unstarred
    Image of ian.nai ian.nai
    11/30/09

    @Poop Cooper: I don't think Google or any other company is interested in hefty up-front costs. They prefer having a 'steady trickle' of income per month. This is for a number of both economic and just 'accounting' reasons. If you've made all of your cash in the past and it's now in a savings or investment somewhere, then you're going to be taxed on the entire sum of that savings/investment. (Companies pay taxes on what they don't spend over a period of time because that figure is their profit.) To decrease tax payments it's best, therefore, to only have as much cash on hand at a given moment as you want. Further, the value of the dollar is constantly decreasing slightly (inflation). Thus, the initial sum you would collect would constantly be less and less valuable. That's another thing companies hate (and people should hate as well). There are still other reasons, I'm sure, but these should suffice for now. Toss shareholders into the equation and you have another argument for a steadily increasing day to day profit.

    I see your point, how ever. It takes less effort to budget a cost once than once a month.
     Reply
    Poop Cooper promoted this comment ian.nai was starred ian.nai was unstarred
    Image of OCEntertainment OCEntertainment
    11/30/09

    @Poop Cooper: It's also insane.

    Google is able to offer a lot of their products and services for free because most of their products and services are software. Users handle the hardware needs of the system. As soon as Google starts putting out hardware (and especially if they offer it with wireless service), they suddenly start incurring an insane amount of extra costs. With my G1, for example, if the hardware is damaged, I go to T-Mobile for a replacement. If service sucks, it's on T-Mo's shoulders to repair/upgrade their lines. All Google's responsible for is making sure the software works. And once it's done, it's done. Code doesn't unravel, wear down, or get old. There's no end to bugs, sure, but for the most part, once it's made it's made.

    Can you imagine how much more it would cost Google to say "Alright, first off, here's the hardware, and also, free cellular service forever!" Heck, even just a couple of years, and their support costs will go through the roof. I mean, does Google even have a call-in support line right now? Because if not, they'd need one.

    As much as I'd like Google to tap into that Money Bin and give free cell access to all, that would be a seriously major venture even for them. Just manufacturing hardware is such a departure from their usual business model, I'm less than convinced they could do it all in one fell swoop.
     Reply
    OCEntertainment was starred OCEntertainment was unstarred
    Image of fodder650 fodder650
    11/30/09

    @Poop Cooper: So ... the Peek approach with their lifetime plans?
     Reply
    Poop Cooper promoted this comment fodder650 was starred fodder650 was unstarred
    Image of Poop Cooper Poop Cooper
    11/30/09

    @fodder650: I hadn't heard of the Peek before, but that's pretty much exactly the kind of business plan I was envisioning.

    Of course, @OCEntertainment and @ian.nai bring up some great points about how it wouldn't be as profitable for Google (though to be honest, I'm not sure how a lot of what Google does translates into profit either) or, more importantly, how such a plan would necessitate an entire business hierarchy that would need to be developed just for the launch of what is admittedly a pipe dream.
     Reply
    Poop Cooper was starred Poop Cooper was unstarred
    Image of brkmrtn002 brkmrtn002
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    I dont understand why people are so worried about Google having all this personal data because the reality is, if anyone wants your info, theyre going to have it whether Google already does or not. Sure its disturbing to knowingly sign it away but it really doesnt matter in the big picture of things. Besides, its probably safer with Google than it is the government...
     Reply
    Mark Wilson promoted this comment brkmrtn002 was starred brkmrtn002 was unstarred
    Image of Brookespeed Brookespeed
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    I have my google voice number and I'll be ready to use it (in about 2 years when I feel like a data plan is worth parting with so much money).
     Reply
    Mark Wilson promoted this comment Brookespeed was starred Brookespeed was unstarred
    Image of jon.athan jon.athan
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    Ok, I love Android and I like Google but this is getting effing confusing.

    A laptop with something other than Chrome OS? A Google hardware phone? Running Android that is the "real Android"?

    So the Donut/Cupcake/Eclair is a lie?

    All the different versions of Android are hard enough to keep up with. This is annoying. My strategy will just be to follow HTC wherever they go because Sense is amazing and their commercials make me feel special
     Reply
    Mark Wilson promoted this comment jon.athan was starred jon.athan was unstarred
    Image of Nick Nick
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    how many times must we hear "this ain't the droid you lookin' fo', sucka" before google just gives us what we want?
     Reply
    Nick was starred Nick was unstarred
    Image of Brazell Brazell
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    In the immortal words of "Incredulous Friend #1" from "The Room" ...

    I don't believe it!
     Reply
    OCEntertainment promoted this comment Brazell was starred Brazell was unstarred
    Image of OCEntertainment OCEntertainment
    11/30/09

    @Brazell: I agree with that.
     Reply
    OCEntertainment was starred OCEntertainment was unstarred
    Image of Poop Cooper Poop Cooper
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    Any chance we'll see anything like this pop up in user stats anywhere first?
     Reply
    Poop Cooper was starred Poop Cooper was unstarred
    Image of haroonsurma haroonsurma
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    You fools, Google is releasing an Android, like a real Android not an os.
     Reply
    Yerzriknot approved this comment haroonsurma was starred haroonsurma was unstarred
    Image of Yerzriknot Yerzriknot
    11/30/09

    @haroonsurma: Will there be a Kate Beckinsale Model?
     Reply
    Yerzriknot was starred Yerzriknot was unstarred
    Image of speaknspell23 speaknspell23
    11/30/09

    In reply to LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
    As reliable as this person may be, I want my blurry cam shots.
     Reply
    OCEntertainment promoted this comment speaknspell23 was starred speaknspell23 was unstarred
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