back to article Google hails hacks to WinPho 8 spoiler event

Crafty Google is hosting an announcement a week on Monday - the same day Microsoft will be formally launching Windows Phone 8. It’s also less than a week after Apple is expected to announced the ‘iPad Mini’. The 29 October Google launch, for which is begun mailing out invites tagged “The Playground is now open”, takes place in …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wouldn't expect anything less from Google, they don't play fair. Hence their anti-trust case in the US.

    1. Ben Tasker

      Didn't see mention of forcing anyone to the event, so how's it not playing fair.

      Not particularly nice to steal Microsoft's thunder, but wouldn't say it was unfair exactly.

      As for the anti-trust thing, I suggest you take a look at the behaviour of some of the companies involved in 'FairSearch' and ask yourself whether the complaint was ever about monopolistic behaviour, or actually about a company that's seen as a threat.

      I've yet to see how exactly users are locked-in to using Google's services? I'm perfectly able to type bing.com into my browser and search, hell some browsers don't even have Google as the default. If a search-engine arises that works better, I'll be switching.

      As for 'Foundem', frankly I can't help think it'd be easier to find things on the net if every search-engine de-indexed them so I wouldn't have their spammy landing pages coming up in results (not that they're the only ones)

  2. ContentsMayVary

    Possibly just officially announcing the 32 GB Nexus 7 (plus new pricing plan)?

    1. Mark C Casey

      The rumour mill is that they're releasing details of the new Nexus phone(s) and Android 4.2.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Actually they are now opening play grounds to get the kids hooked

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Well those Samsung phones won't build themselves!

  4. Big_Ted
    Meh

    Think I'll wait

    for the 4G / LTE version to come out, by then more than just EE will have plans and I can pick the one I want possibly with the tablet included for a reasonable price.

    Till then will stick with my wifi nexus and 3G wifi router.

    As to play store expansion, about time as long as Play music added as well without having to faf round to get it.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmm...

    It seems to me that this is pretty shitty behavior. I wonder what people would say were it MS or Apple announcing something similar on a pre-announced Google product launch.

    1. Piro Silver badge

      Re: Hmm...

      People would say "well done <insert MS or Apple here>" and get on with their lives.

      It's just marketing fluff. Do we really pay attention to that kind of thing?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hmm...

        I have no way to tell for sure, but I strongly suspect you're wrong.

        And as for "Do we really pay attention...", looking at the amount of votes and the fact that you read the article and then the comments, before commenting on another comment, I'd say we do.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I wasn't aware announcement dates were first come/first served

      If they were, and Microsoft had paid for this date, then I could see people calling it "shitty behavior". Quite a comedown for Microsoft from the 90s when people would have thought it insane to schedule a press event on the same date as Microsoft, such would be the overshadowing that would have occurred!

    3. Afflicted.John
      Thumb Down

      Re: Hmm...

      Apple have done...notice anything MS related on the iPad Mini Launch day? They are all gunning for MS. And good too.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The format of the invite, makes me wonder whether this is Google announcing that the play store is opening up all over the world, along with Google Now being made into a Web app and possibly being rolled out as a standalone app, much like the calendar. It would make sense for it to be a Web app, as then windows 8 adopters can then voice search on Google to their hearts content, and never have to go near Bing.

  7. fishman

    $100 Nexus?

    I don't think so for this Christmas. I'll guess:

    Nexus 7 8GB $150

    Nexus 7 16GB $200

    Nexus 7 32GB $250

    Nexus 10 16GB $300

    1. Thecowking

      Re: $100 Nexus?

      If there's a nexus 10, I would be sorely tempted.

      So very sorely.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: $100 Nexus?

      My guess:

      $199 Nexus 7 8GB

      $224 Nexus 7 16GB

      $249 Nexus 7 32GB

      ...and no clue as to the 10"

      A base cut in the 7 pricing would be nice, but the rumor has been that it's already running at a small loss to bring it under the $200 price point. I could be wrong of course...

      That said, more fair pricing for storage capacity would be a good thing I think. Today's $50 premium for an additional 8GB of storage is excessive - and that goes for Apple too, with their $100 premium for a 32GB iPad/iPhone vs. 16GB.

      1. dotslash

        Re: $100 Nexus?

        just google for the 10" nexus and you'll find the rumours. At $300 it would be great, hopefully they'll see sense in their pricing unlike MS and their OEMs

  8. DrXym

    I wish...

    ... the playground had some integrated cloud services for gaming - achievements, high scores, league tablets etc. Gaming on Android is all over the shop and it would be a good thing to unify the experience to some degree.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I wish...

      Prettymuch everything uses OpenFeint on Android (and iOS), so it's not really "all over the place"...

      1. DrXym

        Re: I wish...

        Yes it's all over the place. Some games use Scoreloop, some use OpenFeint, or some other proprietary offer, others roll-their-own solutions, some none at all. It means the whole experience is totally disjointed and a mess.

        One only has to look at Steam, or PSN, or XBL / Windows Live to see what the experience *could* be like. A single sign on (which most people are already signed into), a single set of achievements sorted by game, games specific stats and scores, matchmaking, voip, a single set of privacy controls etc etc.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Errm, don't Google always have a Nexus releated launch end of October?

    Clearly they aren't concerned about Windows 8 RT (and rightly so), as it's been proven that Windows Phone is all but dead.

    So why re-arrange their event so Microsoft can just show of this years failed mobile platform that's been expendaded to work on bigger screens?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Get me a £200 nexus with a microsd slot and I'll be buying two, maybe even 3...

    but without micro sd it is useless when traveling, how often do you get decent 3g coverage when on holiday? and how much would a 2gb film cost to dl on roaming charges?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If you're willing to root it...

      According to this guy you can install a piece of software called Stickmount to hook the Nexus up to USB storage.

      It's not as nice as a Micros SD slot of course, but it is an interesting hack to make an inexpensive piece of equipment much more useful IMHO.

    2. bluest.one

      Nexus Media Importer from the Play store, plus a USB OTG (on-the-go) cable plus unlimited USB memory sticks.

      You can't delete stuff or write to the sticks - that's the only downside. Consider them ROM and its not a problem.

  11. The_Regulator

    Anonymous Cowards & Android Fanbois

    I love the comments from some of the lame android fanbois here, windows rt has not been released and its already dead, the announcement that google is co-inciding with is windows phone 8 not windows rt fyi.

    Please tell us how windows phone 8 is dead too, I would love to see some information on that, the nokia lumia 920 which is about to come out is probably going to be the best phone on the market in terms of actual hardware (OS, image stabilization, touch screen interface the list goes on.) The HTC 8X is as good if not better than any android phone on the market from a hardware standpoint and samsung is releasing an ativ-s phone which is as good if not better than the GS3.

    As for the eco-system, there are comments here obviously from android users too which pretty much proves why apple and microsoft offer better options than google. In order to use something cool you need to "root" your device. Last time I loooked the MS Surface Tablet includes MicroSD out of the box. Ohh and btw thats on a Windows 8 RT Tablet bitches......

    Apple is dominant because of the apps ecosystem, Microsoft has the best mobile OS from a user friendly and look and feel standpoint, android is a lame copy of iOS with fragmentation, malware and the need to root your device at the risk of bricking it to actually do anything cool.

    Enjoy android, you guys deserve it.......

    1. Mike Judge
      FAIL

      Re: Anonymous Cowards & Android Fanbois

      Wasn't the lumia 920 the one with the crap camera that was so bad they had to fake all the pictures and videos to make it appear decent?

      Sounds like you are willing to believe any old crap. All I know is the stream of endless windows phone broken promises and problems.

      1. HipposRule

        Re: Anonymous Cowards & Android Fanbois

        And you've tried a production 920 have you?

      2. The_Regulator
        Mushroom

        Re: Anonymous Cowards & Android Fanbois

        You should probably go get some better information, the comparison photographs and videos that have been shown online between the Lumia 920 and every other camera phone (except the Pureview 808) prove that it has better imaging technology and video stabilization than anything on the market including the iphone 5 and GS3.

        Quit the hate just because you cant see past the apple/android induced haze that you hide behind and open your eyes. The only thing your right about is that they didnt add a disclaimer to the initial show off, PR Dumbness of Nokia yes but the funny thing is that its as good if not better then what they actually showed so who has the last laugh? Not you I know that much :)

        If youre gonna come with something you better come with something better than what you wrote here, a 12 year old kid might have been able to make a better argument than the one you posted.....

    2. Ben Tasker

      Re: Anonymous Cowards & Android Fanbois

      Android is a lame copy of iOS with fragmentation, malware and the need to root your device at the risk of bricking it to actually do anything cool.

      And you really believe Win 8 phones are never going to develop an issue with Malware?

      I do vaguely recall being told by quite a number of fanboys that Windows only has problems with malware because it's popular and targeted more, so let's turn that on it's head: Android only has problems with malware because it's the most used mobile OS yada..yada...yada

      I guess we need to know what you think is cool, I can do plenty of stuff on my phone without it needing to be rooted, just as I'm sure some can do plenty on iOS without needing to jailbreak. But then for some, 'cool' will be writing themselves notes in the likes of Evernote. I've not yet heard a killer feature for Win 8, but keeping my ears open just in case.

      Surface might include MicroSD, but then so do plenty of Android tablets. Don't make the mistake of thinking they're all the same, they're not iPad's, we actually have a wide choice of hardware.

      As for Windows 8 being dead, meh, personally I don't like what I've seen but I suspect it's going to sell well anyway.

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