***Official Galaxy Nexus Pre-Release speculation thread**

[EarlyMon]

i think its kind of crappy they make you pay for tethering now but that's just me..

anyways, i want to root and i JUST rooted my incredible using unrevoked and it was pretty easy. do you think there will be an easy way to root the GNex once it comes out?

Root was announced here yesterday or the day before - it's already a done deal.

PS - trying to find link, modding either other things, sorry!

 

[MoPhoMan]

Get a room!

Spoiler

Mmmmmpppphhhfffttt... ah hahahaahaha!

That's what you get for telling them it's after hours

 

[Ninjak]

I think the point is that the carriers are not the law - it's over the word - illegal - that it all goes south.

Or it all goes South Park. "I am above the law!"

I am above the law! - YouTube

 

[Steven58]

There's been a whole moral debate about a commercial contract violation amounting to illegal net access.

I come down on the side of it being an unconscionable contract, but AndroidForums now comes down hard in favor of that view with the carriers. (Despite no one yet explaining how you can go to jail for this - as in - illegal.)

It was a topic of hot debate in the DX forum, and we spun that off to it's own thread.

Imagine every possible view on this being repeated 10 times with neither side budging. Imagine every possible counter-argument being made repeatedly. (sigh)

Really respectfully request we don't hijack this thread for that.

It's after hours, ok to state views, but please - no arguing, it's always leads to tree, nail, jello.

Cheers, thanks!

I can't double thank, so I'm saying +2 here. Thank you, Mr. Mon.

 

[jbmoore972]

I was planning on buying the phone at the Verizon store....What will the sales people do to my phone in the back room? Even if I was standing there I wouldnt know what to watch them for. Should I bring a Vitulo kit with me? (If you dont know what a Vitulo kit is....all the better)

I am assuming you are meaning a Vitullo Kit. Brings back the memories. Evidence is king!

 

[Ninjak]

It looks like we may hit 2200 posts tonight. I wonder how many pages I'll be behind while taking the wife to dinner. Perhaps if I hide my phone behind the menu I won't fall so behind...

Then again, I don't relish the thought of having a Droid 2 shoved down my throat for dessert.

 

[nj02vette]

I think the point is that the carriers are not the law - it's over the word - illegal - that it all goes south.

Very technically, it could be theft of services, like hooking up to cable lines or power that you don't pay for.

In reality, they aren't going to call the authorities. You aren't going to go to jail. But they can cancel your service, impose additional fees, kill unlimited data, etc.

Now, as to whether that is reasonable..........no comment.

 

[MoPhoMan]

Ok guys serious question here!!!!

How will the lack of a menu button work with ICS? I just realized (little slow on this one) that there is no menu button on the software buttons like how there is on all the other Android phones. Many apps heavily rely on the menu button. Will all app makers have to change the way their apps work in order to compensate for ICS, or will ICS provide a way to still access a "menu" the same way in which we have become accustomed to?

*Hope this question makes sense*

I just saw the answer to this. I know it was posted earlier that ICS now uses 3 vertical dashes as a menu icon that will appear when applicable.

From the hands-on video I just watched for the third (ok maybe 30th, ummm 37 to be exact) time, the menu icon appears in the top right corner while in the browser and yep, operates just like the menu button at the bottom of our current phones.

YAY I contributed...beyond the occassional bad joke here and there

 

[snowmancomic]

There's been a whole moral debate about a commercial contract violation amounting to illegal net access.

I come down on the side of it being an unconscionable contract, but AndroidForums now comes down hard in favor of that view with the carriers. (Despite no one yet explaining how you can go to jail for this - as in - illegal.)

It was a topic of hot debate in the DX forum, and we spun that off to it's own thread.

Imagine every possible view on this being repeated 10 times with neither side budging. Imagine every possible counter-argument being made repeatedly. (sigh)

Really respectfully request we don't hijack this thread for that.

It's after hours, ok to state views, but please - no arguing, it's always leads to tree, nail, jello.

Cheers, thanks!

Better watch out or this will be Earlymon and Steven

You will respect my Authoritah! - YouTube

 

[EarlyMon]

Very technically, it could be theft of services, like hooking up to cable lines or power that you don't pay for.

In reality, they aren't going to call the authorities. You aren't going to go to jail. But they can cancel your service, impose additional fees, kill unlimited data, etc.

Now, as to whether that is reasonable..........no comment.

Exactly.

They aren't going to call the authorities because they can't. FCC again - they are like public communications utilities, but they are not public communications utilities (I've been at this too long - there's a correct legal expression for this and I just blew it - but the idea is correct).

Anyway, few of us deal in the semantics of the situation - but the outcome is exactly as you say.

Tether in ways against your contract and bad things happen.

 

[EarlyMon]

Better watch out or this will be Earlymon and Steven

You will respect my Authoritah! - YouTube

Steven - you tell 'em. They used my voice for Cartman!

Steven is more like good cop. Ask him.

 

[zx10droid]

not exactly about the gnex, but definitely about android as a whole. heres an article about how motorola won an injunction against the fruit company for patent infringement.

FOSS Patents: Motorola Mobility apparently won an injunction against Apple in Germany over two patents

+1 for the android community!

 

[nj02vette]

Exactly.

They aren't going to call the authorities because they can't. FCC again - they are like public communications utilities, but they are not public communications utilities (I've been at this too long - there's a correct legal expression for this and I just blew it - but the idea is correct).

Anyway, few of us deal in the semantics of the situation - but the outcome is exactly as you say.

Tether in ways against your contract and bad things happen.

And keep in mind, that the reverse is also true.
Every time you get one of the change of TOS letters from Verizon, or anyone else, it is THEM violating your contract. You have the option to discontinue doing business with them, your non-action implies compliance to the new TOS.

But I always tell people this, that once you get one of those letters, you can cancel your service with no ETF. So for those looking to get out of a contract, those letters are gold.

 

[Cam]

Exactly.


Tether in ways against your contract and bad things happen.

Please forgive my ignorance and for my not employing search- I'm sure I could find the answer on my own, eventually.

Hypothetically, if I root my GNex to tether, how would Verizon know and therefore make bad things happen to me (or my service/bill)?

 

[redraider1]

Please forgive my ignorance and for my not employing search- I'm sure I could find the answer on my own, eventually.

Hypothetically, if I root my GNex to tether, how would Verizon know and therefore make bad things happen to me (or my service/bill)?

Verizon can see what apps you downloaded and they block tethering apps from the market.

 

[EarlyMon]

not exactly about the gnex, but definitely about android as a whole. heres an article about how motorola won an injunction against the fruit company for patent infringement.

FOSS Patents: Motorola Mobility apparently won an injunction against Apple in Germany over two patents

+1 for the android community!

Nice!

Tipped to Phandroid...

 

[Namrak]

Verizon can see what apps you downloaded and they block tethering apps from the market.

If that's the case you could just download app from desktop and transfer to SGN.

 

[Ytram]

Verizon can see what apps you downloaded and they block tethering apps from the market.

Yeah, that's why it requires root to install non-market tethering apps that Verizon cannot block.

As for whether they can detect that data is being used via tethering or just normal phone use, I doubt it. At least I doubt it's a simple flag that says "customer X is tethering with his phone!". However, if you go from 0.5 - 1.0 GB used per month to 30 GB, then they're going to start looking and making assumptions.

Basically, if you're going to do it, you do it at your own risk. If you're going to do it, be smart about it.

 

[zx10droid]

Verizon can see what apps you downloaded and they block tethering apps from the market.

thanks for this answer, i had wondered the about the original question myself for a while now. on my dinc, i was able to go into the settings menu and change some NAM settings and gain it free that way, without use of an app so i guess it might be more difficult to track that way??

 

[EarlyMon]

Please forgive my ignorance and for my not employing search- I'm sure I could find the answer on my own, eventually.

Hypothetically, if I root my GNex to tether, how would Verizon know and therefore make bad things happen to me (or my service/bill)?

Verizon can see what apps you downloaded and they block tethering apps from the market.

Plus, packet routing goes to the tethered device, so they have the tech to tell if you're doing it.

Some of the XDA guys (I _think_) have claims to cover those tracks, but why bother?

If they just offered it as a simple tier - like, same concept as a long-distance call, per-minute, kind of thing - most casual tetherers would likely not care for the problems avoiding it and just go for that....

Eh - there's as many sides to this issues as there are users, I won't pretend to have any answers here.

PS - I tethered in an emergency (publicly posted about it) for a few minutes. Sprint immediately texted me - we have a wonderful tethering place - with smiley faces. They're pretty cool about it, but they can tell if they want to.

 

[xs301]

And keep in mind, that the reverse is also true.
Every time you get one of the change of TOS letters from Verizon, or anyone else, it is THEM violating your contract. You have the option to discontinue doing business with them, your non-action implies compliance to the new TOS.

But I always tell people this, that once you get one of those letters, you can cancel your service with no ETF. So for those looking to get out of a contract, those letters are gold.

I am guessing they would not make it that easy. I bet we'd be transfered from representative to rep, then from supervisor to supervisor. Then, I bet they'd still make it difficult. Do you know anyone who's done this with a cell company other than sprint or tmobile? Not that I don't believe. I am just skeptical. If it would work, I would be able to get a lot of on contract phones after continously terminating service when changes are made.

 

[redraider1]

I am guessing they would not make it that easy. I bet we'd be transfered from representative to rep, then from supervisor to supervisor. Then, I bet they'd still make it difficult. Do you know anyone who's done this with a cell company other than sprint or tmobile? Not that I don't believe. I am just skeptical. If it would work, I would be able to get a lot of on contract phones after continously terminating service when changes are made.

I'd rather keep my unlimited data then deal with all that.

 

[Cam]

Yeah, that's why it requires root to install non-market tethering apps that Verizon cannot block.

As for whether they can detect that data is being used via tethering or just normal phone use, I doubt it. At least I doubt it's a simple flag that says "customer X is tethering with his phone!". However, if you go from 0.5 - 1.0 GB used per month to 30 GB, then they're going to start looking and making assumptions.

Basically, if you're going to do it, you do it at your own risk. If you're going to do it, be smart about it.

If I were to tether, it would be on a limited basis while traveling. For example, I don't want to pay $10 for WiFi at the airport while waiting for my flight, or whatever the daily fee happens to be at the hotel I'm staying at, especially if I'm shelling out good money for mobile data from VZW. Since I'd be doing it on such a limited basis, it doesn't exactly make sense to pay ridiculous tethering or mobile hotspot fees from a provider. Therefore, if I'm going to tether at all, I'm not about to pay extra for it, because it's just not worth it- there's not enough value for my purposes. For the same reason, if I risk getting nailed by the provider for rooting/tethering, I doubt I'll bother...

 

[EarlyMon]

OBTW - note in my earlier warning - the forums' official policy is to side with the carriers on this, so anything approaching a how-to-tether publicly, I'll have to delete.

Please make it easy on me, we don't want to hassle this.

 

[xs301]

I'd rather keep my unlimited data then deal with all that.

True. I didn't think of that! My plan for cheap phones has been foiled!