The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has disappeared from Google's online shop -- but it's coming back stronger with Jelly Bean on board.
The Galaxy Nexus is on sale directly from Google Play, Google's online shop for apps, games, movies and music, and its own phones and tablets. Or rather it was -- the Galaxy Nexus is not currently listed. But the big G says it'll be back next week, complete with the next generation of Android software: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
The mysterious vanishing Nexus may have done its disappearing act because of legal shenanigans from Apple. The rival firm managed to win a ban on the Nexus from a US court in a dispute over patents, and has just posted a $96m bond to underwrite the ban.
The ban is temporary and protects Apple as the two tech giants prepare to meet head-on in a US court. The patent at issue relates to searching multiple areas for information through a single search interface, as well as using predetermined heuristic algorithms corresponding to each search area.
The ban is bad news for other companies too, as it relates to features found across Android software. The outcome of this case could change Android forever.
But Google promises that the Galaxy Nexus will be back next week, loaded with the newest Android update, Jelly Bean. It's possible that Google has redesigned the software to get around the ban, as well as adding new features including mind-reading Google Now, voice search, improved notifications and much more.
Jelly Bean makes its debut on the 7-inch Google Nexus 7 tablet, coming this month for just £160.
Has the Galaxy Nexus just become a more attractive proposition? Is Apple right to ban rival phones? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
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Comments 11
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anonymous 5 July, 2012 19:25
"searching multiple areas for information through a single search interface" - is that not a search engine? Has this not been around for slightly longer than the I phoned?
anonymous 5 July, 2012 22:45
Oh, you guys are making phones more functional than our toy phones and becoming popular? Can't have that.
anonymous 6 July, 2012 08:17
" The patent at issue relates to searching multiple areas for information through a single search interface"
haven't web browsers been doing this since the internet hit the mass market??
anonymous 6 July, 2012 08:29
Apple really are embarrassing themselves now. This needs to stop right now.I was giving serious thought to buying an iPad and possibly even switching to iPhone and in the future perhaps buying an MacBook air, but I refuse to pay more than I have to (a lot more) for products that other companies are selling equivalents of for far, far less, when the company itself seems so ruthlessly unethical in the way it handles the competition. Why dominate a market by innovation and attractive prices when you can monopolise it!? To an outsider that is how it looks.
I'm not a fanboy, I use whichever product serves my needs at the lowest price, simple as that, but I am a consumer with a conscience and am a believer in innovation and, sorry, I just don't see it from Apple anymore. I could go on and on about the problems, how out of touch they can be, and the complete blindness that the media seems to have to the build quality of many Apple products (but hey, it's always someone's else's fault, right?), and other things that push people like me, consumers who like to actually think about what they're buying and whom they are buying from, away.
No thanks, I'll stick with the companies that actually work hard to establish themselves in the markets and work hard to attract customers by design and innovation (not just claiming to do it with nice adverts).
tomfromaardvark 6 July, 2012 08:49
^^ i like this guy, he speaks sense! Apple are getting ridiculous now, basically every other company in the world competes in a fair way and sells products through innovation and appealling prices/value, not by taking all the competition to court over 'theft of intellectual property'. its pathetic and basically unethical, why cant they play the game fairly and accept that some handsets will simply be more popular? Stupid Apple, once again prooving that you should not do business with them anymore! bring back the old apple, with innovations and original ipods!
anonymous 6 July, 2012 09:22
Cheers.
The thing that has ALWAYS bothered me with Apple is the price you pay for their products. I liked their ideals at one time, producing crazy looking machines in an era of ugly, grey towers and monitors. But that's what Apple always were, something pretty when everything else was ugly. I don't think that that is the case any more, I think a lot of PC manufacturers, for instance, have really stepped up their aesthetics game and Apple products look very ordinary and plain now (with the exception of the Mac Mini which PC manufacturers seem reluctant to take on, possibly due to the dwindling desktop market).
iPhone, MacBooks (air and pro), iMac, they're nothing special anymore. Compare to Asus Zenbooks, or the kind of machines HP are now producing. Compare iPhone to any mid to high end Android phone or Windows phone. There is NO competition anymore in looks. So now Apple claims to be all about the hardware. But really? I still do not believe that OS X is as user friendly or even attractive as Windows 7, call me deluded if you like but that is my opinion (that's why I worry about Windows 8 not having aero, it sets it apart from other OSs right now in terms of aesthetics). iOS? Come on. Every OMG AMAZING! feature in iOS 5 and 6 are things that were standard in Android in 2009 or even before. And, again, I do not feel that it's a more attractive OS, certainly not more than Windows Phone or ICS/Jelly Bean, or Sense or Touchwiz skinned Gingerbread.
Apple probably wins in terms of reliability, though I know far more people with broken iPhones than broken Android phones. Far more people.
I don't know. I love competition and innovation, that's why I'm so excited about Microsoft taking the game seriously again. But I feel that since iPad, Apple have done relatively little. But I'm grateful to them for making things like touchscreen smart phones and tablets mainstream and accessible. Microsoft were doing that stuff well before iPhone and iPad, but without doubt it is Apple that made them popular and essentially changed the industry for the better.
Now it's time for them to start being the innovative, revolutionary company they claim to be, rather than talking a good game, but essentially trying to throttle the industry through patent cases. This may not apply to all, but I can't believe I'm the only one with an open mind to whose products I buy but can't bring myself to buy from a company behaving in this way.
Again, this from someone that would like to get into the world of Apple, but they push me away with these petty patent cases. I would worry about the number of out of touch comments coming out of Cupertino as well. They have the air of a company that believes that what they do is the only way to do things, everyone else is wrong, regardless of how successful they are. Many, many companies and individuals have been at the top, taken this attitude, and crashed as they stagnated and the competition flourished.
D.
anonymous 6 July, 2012 14:46
Let's hope very soon Apple products are not displaced by the surging HTC and Samsung products which tend to be more economical. Why spend so much when I can get an equally good product with more features and durability at a much reduced rate.
In a competitive market your sole aim is to out do your competitor not to play blame games. Sit up Apple, lest you become history in a box never to be revisited.
anonymous 7 July, 2012 09:56
I don't disagree with Apple . They may be BILLIONAIRES but that doesn't meen they want to loose money because other companies are taking their ideas.
anonymous 7 July, 2012 10:26
Taking their ideas? REALLY!!!!!
I'll admit that I found the iPhone very slick when I had one, but in all honesty there was nothing revolutionary about it, and NONE of the features were new!
Apps = I had them on WM6, no store to buy online but they were apps nonetheless
Voice Recognition = I had it on my Nokia and full command and web search via my old HTC Desire (Pre Siri)
Notification Bar = Don't get me started on this lol
Slide to Lock = Proven to be part of an old Windows Mobile
Unified Search patent makes no sense to patent, it is obvious and used everywhere and anywhere.
Like I said, I did like the iPhone, but if nobody is prepared to share the tech or ideas then it is only us, the customer, that will suffer.
Sick of this crap now.....
sfdgoz 7 July, 2012 15:44
Apple need to calm down with their disputes as all it does is help the Android phone manufacturers group together and come back stronger.
anonymous 8 July, 2012 07:09
ios is getting worse not better, really hard to navigate and seriously takes more steps to get things done compare to android. i think apple feels the door closing. im done with apple.