Hi, I'm new to Android. Just got a Gnex. Primary reason was that the iPhones display is too small for my taste (hands and eyes actually) and after giving Apple 2 chances to come out with a larger display version of the iPhone, I finally had to give up.
I like the Gnex and new OS overall so far, but have a couple of questions on who to do certain things the way I used to under iOs. One is I jailbroke my iPhone to be able to tether and check my email and respond as well as do quick Skype chats and web searches on my laptop ever once in a while. I knew I was only going to use 100-200 MB per month that way so didn't feel bad about it.
What is the least painful way to do this sort of thing on the nexus?
Finally, the one thing that really sucks on this phone imho compared to the iPhone is the camera. That said it seems to be the best in Android territory right now (I tried phone's with the old OS and skins on them and didn't like it at all). I do however foresee wanting to upgrade to next years Nexus or maybe the SIII. What is the least painful way for doing this without paying an early termination fee? If there is a way...
Thanks!
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Kind of hard to do that. You could sell your Nexus to help pay for the ETF. Most likely the GS3 will not be on Verizon so you would get the contract price of that phone when you switch carriers.
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Welcome to Android. There are many threads on rooting your Gnex. There is a whole sub-forum on it here too. They should be able to answer all of your rooting / tethering questions there.
I think you will find many many new capabilities in Android than on iOS. Nothing you can do about the camera obviously, the 4S camera is the best in class. I have found the gnex camera to be adequate when I focus properly, but certainly not superb at this point.
Good luck with your gnex...
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The rooting looks a little complicated, more complicated than for iOS. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something.
I looked for the ETF fee and can't find it. It only says "Up to $350" on my receipts and then directs to a non-existing website for more information. If I terminate my contract in one year, will I get to keep the phone so I can sell it? I assume this is what the above post implies but would like to be certain.
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PS: One thing that really surprises me is how awesome the curviness of the display is. I can't really say why, but this seems to me the way it should be.
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The rooting looks a little complicated, more complicated than for iOS. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something.
I looked for the ETF fee and can't find it. It only says "Up to $350" on my receipts and then directs to a non-existing website for more information. If I terminate my contract in one year, will I get to keep the phone so I can sell it? I assume this is what the above post implies but would like to be certain.
The rooting looks a little complicated, more complicated than for iOS. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something.
I looked for the ETF fee and can't find it. It only says "Up to $350" on my receipts and then directs to a non-existing website for more information. If I terminate my contract in one year, will I get to keep the phone so I can sell it? I assume this is what the above post implies but would like to be certain.
The ETF starts at 350 (meaning if you terminated right after signing the new contract it would be such). Each month it decreases by a certain amount. You probably won't know how much it will be until you ask them. After a year I would think it would be about half of the original amount. At that point you can keep the phone and do with it whatever you wish - that's the whole point of the ETF, they want to recoup the cost of the phone.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by link1305
The ETF starts at 350 (meaning if you terminated right after signing the new contract it would be such). Each month it decreases by a certain amount. You probably won't know how much it will be until you ask them. After a year I would think it would be about half of the original amount. At that point you can keep the phone and do with it whatever you wish - that's the whole point of the ETF, they want to recoup the cost of the phone.
$10 per month, so after a year it should be down $120.
If the op is looking for tethering, go with apps in the market. Rooting and Romming might be out of scope
There are tethering apps in the marketplace, haven't used them for a long time. Keep in mind that all carriers have a way of detecting this, and reporting on it... only think they are doing the top 2% now, but who's to say that any carrier will enforce 100% yet.
GNEX is almost a straight google phone so the root (term for a jailbroke droid device) community is going to be all over mods and updates for this phone. So if you can hang on to this phone for a year or two you arent going to miss much with this phone. Plus google will keep pumping out updates for this phone a good 18 months so again you wont be missing out on much.
if you want to upgrade in the future you're kind of limited. if you have a 2 year contract you can only upgrade every 20 months i believe. If you want to upgrade before that then the most cost efficient way is to sell the GNEX and straight up buy a new phone. Lets so you make $150-250 on the sale of the phone, a new phone may cost you $600-650. So you take a hit but the benefit of this is if you want a 2nd upgrade in 20 months you can have it. If you aren't going to upgrade that 2nd time (from GNEX to next years nexus to3rd device) in 20 months from now your only option is early termination fee.
I dont recalll the early termination fee but its something like $20-30 per line per month remaining on contract.
What I would do is have fun with the GNEX, visit the root sub forum. People are real helpful here. My guess is in a year when the next one comes out you'll see you've modded that thing so much that an upgraded phone wont be much change and you'll hang on to it. But in the event that isnt true then you have options....although not cheap....you have options.
The best way to manage phone upgrades, assuming you don't want to pay an ETF and may stick with Verizon, would be to just buy the new phone off contract and sell the old one.
A few of us do this. If you upgrade regularly you don't take such a big hit via the loss in value of the older phone. Say every 4-6 months. I'd think in 4-6 months you could still get $500+ for GNex that isn't tied to a contract and then put that cash towards a new phone.
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Thanks Everybody. Really appreciate it. I feel a little silly to be thinking already about what to do in a year but fact is that smartphones are expensive and this phone unfortunately has two major flaws at arrival (camera and battery life) that I'm sure will make it look very outdated in a year.
I have a question about the battery: wouldn't it have made more sense to put in a non-user removable battery that wraps around the other components and can thus be say 50% larger like in some of Apple's devices? It seems like the interior space can never be used as well with a user-replaceable battery. Same with the extended battery they're selling for this: it protrudes but leaves a lot of unused space under the bigger cover. Why not just build the battery into the whole cover, thereby making it last 2 times longer?
I'll still keep thinking about it until January 15. It's kind of surprising to me that they kept some of these imperfections in the phone apparently solely to make people upgrade in a year.
Also, my display has a very visible discoloration issue. The bottom is brighter than the mid and top portions of the screen. Is that something that might go away with time?
Otherwise, a great phone. Apple definitely uses with the 3.5" display, but I have to admit if they made something with 4.2" or bigger chances are I'd have stayed with them.
Last edited by berkeley; December 18th, 2011 at 12:40 AM.
The rooting looks a little complicated, more complicated than for iOS. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something.
Superboot!!! All you do is boot the phone into the unlock screen, conenct via USB, run Superboot in a terminal window on your computer.
It definitely is not going to be as easy as iPhone. Android is definitely based upon Linux. It will be more technical to do anything compared to the iPhone.
There are going to be issues on the GNex that you will not see on the iPhone. The GNex is far more open and there will be a solution to almost everything. I have been looking into the jailbreak possibilities with the iPhone 4S since I have noticed these problems on the GNex.
Last edited by BigRedNole; December 18th, 2011 at 06:10 AM.
I have a question about the battery: wouldn't it have made more sense to put in a non-user removable battery that wraps around the other components and can thus be say 50% larger like in some of Apple's devices? It seems like the interior space can never be used as well with a user-replaceable battery. Same with the extended battery they're selling for this: it protrudes but leaves a lot of unused space under the bigger cover. Why not just build the battery into the whole cover, thereby making it last 2 times longer?
I think it's a crime to sell a phone that the user can't change the battery on. It's a level and type of service iPhone users are accustomed to, but it would cause a revolt among Android users.
For one thing, the user can buy the extended battery and switch it out himself, and have an extra battery for travel to boot.
I think it's a crime to sell a phone that the user can't change the battery on. It's a level and type of service iPhone users are accustomed to, but it would cause a revolt among Android users.
For one thing, the user can buy the extended battery and switch it out himself, and have an extra battery for travel to boot.
If the battery lasted twice as long to begin with, there would be little point in purchasing a battery that only lasts 10% longer...
I have another question: my iPhone worked automatically with the bluetooth in my car (2011 Subaru Forester) for both free speak phone calls and to stream music. The Gnex works for neither. It can't even find the bluetooth of the car. Is there anything I can do about that?
Also, are there any tutorials out there for people like me who are trying to make this migration from iOS? Basic things I need to know are how to get my iTunes library on the Nexus and photos, etc.
The Galaxy Nexus is the third official phone contracted by Google and the first phone to come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Specs include a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16/32GB of internal storage, a 4.65 inch 720p HD Super AMOLED... Read More
Switched from iOS and now have questions
