It's something you can eventually learn to not depend on but it still feels very backwards for me. Every phone I've had since like 1998 has had an led notification blinking at me when I've had a missed call, received sms, voicemail, etc. There's been times when I walked away from my desk for a few minutes, missed a call, and came back and noticed the blinking light to realize I had a missed call. If it wasn't there, there's a chance I would've never even looked at my phone for hours. That's why I'm hoping this trend of no led notification doesn't catch on. As cmdrmonkey mentioned there, devs even had to make some kernel modifications to make up for this missing feature for rooted devices of the Samsung Galaxy S.
Any time I am away from my desk the first thing I do when I come back is check my lock screen for any icons in the notification bar. Even with a glowing light for text messages I still tend to pick up the phone and check, its become second nature to me.
That's the thing.. I shouldn't have to do that. The fact that all mobile phones had this before and then for some reason they decide to do away with it just seems backwards. It also works as a battery charge indicator too. Even if people don't use it, it should be there as an option as all phones with it have an option to turn it off.
The real benefit of having an LED notification is that you don't have to bee all OCD about checking your phone every time you leave it somewhere and come back to it. Getting those kinds of habits out of your head really is a big plus in my book. It's much better to just be able to casually glance at your phone and know if you have a notification or not. Of course, I'm sure many people have no problem with being a slave to their phone.
I've had my S2 for a week now and I love it. It's so much faster than my Galaxy S. The screen is great too - I've had a lot of time in the car lately as a passenger and watching movies on my phone has saved me from going utterly insane. The fact that this phone plays AVI, DivX and MKV files out of the box will always sell it to me over other phones.
I really don't see how routinely clicking a button to check the lock screen info is more OCD than routinely looking at your phone to see if the light is blinking.
Apple is going to need to enforce bans based on their stolen patent designs to stop the Samsung juggernaut. Looks like carrier exclusivity could have bit Apple in the long run.
Unless they cutoff Android cold, and limit sales to only US carrier, I think they'll be fine. It looks like the interface will be very similar to Android TouchWiz anyway. The way Apple does business is only good for Apple consumers (I think), not the company long-term. They create an environment for their users and control every aspect of it to ensure everything works. But then someone like Bill Gates comes along and wholesales it faster and cheaper and Apple loses market-share. Samsung is the Microsoft of the mobile arena.
How can Samsung be the Microsoft of the mobile arena when Microsoft has never primarily made money by selling hardware? They're a software licensing company. I think it's likely that Samsung will start transitioning away from Android in the next couple of years, as they have less need for a short term OS solution as their success in mobile solidifies. Why should Samsung limit themselves to the whims of Google and the burden of Android's patent blunders? Oracle could kill off Android or pile on even more licensing fees in addition to Microsoft's cut etc., and Google themselves could abandon Android in favor of Chrome OS at some point. Samsung is a big enough company to pull it off, and they probably know that the main selling point of the Galaxy line is the hardware, not Android.
As an owner of the cr48, I can say this will never happen.. and for some reason, if it does, there will be major backlash. For example, Matias Duarte will probably leave yet another company.
I'm not talking that literally. Samsung is taking what Apple started with iPhone and running past them with it. Samsung has a runaway hit with the Galaxy S line, and TouchWiz is "good enough" for the mass market. Microsoft did something pretty similar. I saw it on TNT.
We shall see. Engineers at Google have been anonymously quoted as saying that Android was never intended as much more than a placeholder until Chrome OS was ready for prime time, and Chrome is the cloud oriented OS, not Android. Maybe they'll keep the Android branding though and junk the Chrome name.
Samsung isn't anywhere near Microsoft's monopoly control of the PC OS market, so IMO it's not a very good analogy to say Samsung is the Microsoft of mobile.
Yeah, I'm sure Google and Samsung are just going to suddenly drop an OS that has 50+% market share (and growing), 550,000 daily activations, and almost as many apps now as iOS despite coming out a year later. Keep dreaming Apple fanboi. Even if it was meant as a placeholder OS, Android is now a runaway success. They'd have to be smoking crack to abandon it.
Oh we shall. Ever since the launch of the cr48 pilot program up until now, which engulfs the consumer release of Samsung and Acer devices, there has not been much development. Chromium and AOSP may merge in the future, but as it stands now, Chrome OS isn't exactly doing much for users. ios and android on tablets are more useful by 100 fold. If any such merging of projects does happen, I expect Android lead the direction. At best, I see Chrome OS making its way to low cost tablets. Pricing for chromebooks as it is now is higher than netbooks. Not exactly a good starting point to get a wide base of users. I'm not even sure how well the business and education sector will do with chromebooks. As we all know, the users determine the fate of Google projects. No adoption shows no interest, and google will do as they see fit.
The iPhone 4S apparently has shitty battery life in actual use. Once again Apple was more concerned with gimmicks and screwed up the basics of making a good phone. http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20127225-248/apple-reportedly-investigating-iphone-4s-battery-drain/