Samsung pulling the plug on the Note 7

An epic fail of colossal proportions. On the bright side, when the Galaxy S8 is released, I bet it will be priced to move.

Honestly, I think it's because people were expecting something very different and, frankly, it looks derivative of the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6. Add to that the larger-than-hoped-for bezels and you have people wondering what happened.

No doubt. They've just very badly damaged their brand with the Note 7 fiasco and will need to do some major work to build it back up. The folks in Cupertino, Mountain View, LG Twin Towers, etc probably couldn't be much happier.

Think seven ways before you bring anything that looks much like a Samsung Note on your travels. Seven times that number of airlines may soon be banning even just stowing the things aboard.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37674170
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 banned by more airlines over fire risk

Honestly, I'll go against the grain and bet there won't be too much lasting damage to Samsung beyond maybe a few months of bad PR.

The bread-and-butter is the Galaxy line, and as long as the S8 rocks, which I'm sure it will, they'll be fine. That phone is still the flagship of flagships - none of the other phones seem that poised to take over.

Google seems to be purposely aiming at the tier just below iPhone and Samsung with the Pixel. Just looking at it, it appears to have the design/finish quality on the level of my Moto X Pure (with better specs, of course.)

It may take a release or two to bring people back to Notes (if they still call them that...). But people will come back.

Yes, the Galaxy series is tough to beat for those that want a "small" phone. But the Note series is/was the best "large" phone out there.

The problem is that they are pricing it almost like an iPhone or Galaxy.

Indeed, I wasn't enthused when I saw the Pixel's price tag. If it was a $350-400 phone, I'd be right there in line for one.

My Galaxy S7 Edge is anything but small. It has the same screen size as the iPhone 7 Plus, albeit with smaller exterior dimensions.

Sorry, I wasn't talking about the Edge version since that is close to the dimensions of the Note series. Again, I prefer a phone as close to 5" as possible.

So I went to AT&T on Friday and played with their LG V20 on display. I think it's a fine device, but ultimately I decided on the 128 GB Pixel XL which I managed to preorder Friday night. I have a November 18-21 delivery date.

You'll miss out on HD Voice and whatnot though, won't you?

The V20 comes with N out of the box and is way better looking than the Pixel phones.

Yeah it's a tough decision for me, HD Voice and wifi calling or "pure" Android with frequent updates. I'm hoping AT&T will allow those features on the Pixel, but I've decided I can live without them.

Looks are subjective, and I actually like the looks of the Pixel better.

To be honest, I was also a little bit leery of LG's boot-looping problems with it's recent flagships and its reluctance to deal with the problem properly. Without that, it would have been a pretty close tie in my mind between the two devices.

FWIW, I finally settled on a new iPhone 7.
Why? Well first I am one of those people who is invested in the Apple Ecosystem. And I must admit I like it very much. Granted one can duplicate that ecosystem easily using various tools from other companies. But....

I also like Apple's commitment to security of my personal data. I will gladly give up a bit of convenience and a few more dollars to be more secure. My previous Android phone was a security nightmare, starting with the fact that getting upgrades (security related or not) was a slow if not impossible undertaking. This despite the fact that at the time of purchase my Android phone was considered 'state of the art' and was less than two years old.

And even if security was not an issue I already owned an Android phone and had a big problem with it....

I finally got rid of my Android phone after it kept waking me up at 2:00 AM, as it went into a re-boot loop. Loudly proclaiming 'DROID!!!!!' every time it rebooted until I turned it off so I could sleep. Neither Google, the manufacturer or the cell phone provider I bought it from did anything to help me. They all pointed fingers at the other two. Not exactly a good way to win repeat customers.

Given the fact that my previous Apple phone lasted five years while I had to ditch the Android phone after 2.5 years, I would say that the 'Apple Tax' was are far cheaper payment than having to buy a new phone after only 2.5 years.

Question on the Pixel: I see it advertised both as a Verizon phone and as a Google Fi phone. If you buy the Google Fi version, is it a "pure Android" device with no carrier bloat?

As far as I can tell, they aren't yet offering a truly unlocked bring-your-own-device Pixel yet. e.g., One I can pop a Sprint SIM into and use there??

Regarding the looks/design/feel, I guess I should withhold judgment until I can actually play around with one in a retail store. I'm probably not onboard now at $649, but by the time the 2nd generation of Pixels are out and this one drops in price, maybe...

You are right to worry about it. My G4 is on the way back to LG to fix the boot loop issue. It is 16 months old and out of warranty. I hope they will fix it for free but now I have to go back to use the Nexus 4 for now.

BTW, because the Nexus 4 screen is so small, I went to T-mobile and got a tablet and signed up with their $35/month 6Gb tablet plan. It's actually pretty awesome. I got a 8" screen unlimited video/music streaming with binge on. And this week I am heading to Aruba so I think I could use it there for free international roaming. Google voice and hangout dialer app made it a huge phone. If LG is not fixing my G4 for free.. I may just ditch the phone on AT&T and go with the super huge Phablet LOL. :D And it does actually fit in my jean's pockets.. both front and back LOL.

They're actually all SIM-unlocked, even the ones sold by Verizon. The Verizon model reportedly has a locked bootloader, though, and will install 3 apps when a Verizon SIM is inserted. Those apps are all easily removable, though, as they are not installed as system apps.

The phones sold through Fi are completely unlocked (SIM and bootloader), and you can actually buy through Fi and simply not activate the device with Fi, and it's the same as buying the device from the Google Store. In fact, you can buy it from the Google Store and request a free Fi SIM, and it will be exactly the same as having ordered the device through Fi.