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Yes, and to what? iMessage and Facebook Messenger, mostly. Hardly anyone I know has heard of WhatsApp, nevermind uses it… I think you’re furthering the point. If all your friends move from BB what are you left with? An empty BBM Buddy List and the inability to partake in Group iMessage Conversations or FaceTime with anyone (cause why install something like Skype when 90% of the people you know can FaceTime?)…

Exactly the point…

It’s not about upgrading a phone, it’s about keeping pace with the changes that happen in certain demographics or social circles… And Teens love their apple products. It’s not uncommon for teens with Androids around here to also have iPod Touches to “play games,” when they’re really FaceTiming and iMessaging on it 90% of the time.

20 days ago on How losing iMessage could mean losing your friends 1 reply

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What if they FaceTime? Still not accessible with out an iPhone or iPod Touch… Don’t see your point.

And I think we’ve already covered how shitty an experience it is having to load misc 3rd party apps onto your device. Maybe their “friend’s” parents don’t want them buying apps, don’t give them iTunes cards, and don’t jus thand their CC# to their kids… Who knows. WhatsApp is not a free Download for iOS unless there’s a promotion running.

What if she preferred ChatOn, though? Or BBM when it comes out? Or Hangouts? Or Skype?

There is too many choices in Messaging right now. People like to KISS.

20 days ago on How losing iMessage could mean losing your friends

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I’m really kinda in laughs about this “can’t afford iPhone” bullshit. The iPhone 4 is Free on Contract. The 4S is $99. The 5 is $199. Subsidies are how most phones are sold here, it’s just a fact. Most kids simply use what their parents got them, unless their parents put them on a Cheap Pre-Paid carrier like Boost Mobile which limits them to Android and BB6/7 (or worse, a Feature Phone).

Also, Samsung’s phones cost as much as an iPhone these days. This is getting ridiculous. Stop using price as an excuse.

If Android had decent group SMS/MMS support the lack of iMessage would be less of an issue.

If Google had done something about their terrible messaging apps years ago, iMessage wouldn’t be the selling point it is today.

20 days ago on How losing iMessage could mean losing your friends

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You’re not in the minority. Even on the website too much space is taken up. It’s tiring to go through all of that, especially for those of us with older phones (i.e. over halfway through a contract) that don’t have the highest screen resolution.

20 days ago on Google+ for iOS updated with automatic photo enhancements, jumps back on par with Android 1 recommend

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If Google had a clue of how to do Messaging, we wouldn’t have that issue. It’s competition, it means people are going to Apple for iMessage, but they aren’t leaving Apple for Talk/Hangouts… It’s a pretty big deal in some social circles to be compatible with everyone else.

20 days ago on How losing iMessage could mean losing your friends

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Seriously 1000 text messages is laughable. It’s basically unusably low for the average teenager with a smartphone…

Also, so is 1GB data.

20 days ago on How losing iMessage could mean losing your friends

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This! Unless you have an iPhone or Windows Phone, just don’t expect to take part in any decent group text conversations.

A lot of people (me included) have better things to do than run 3-5 different messaging services to cover everyone.

This is also why I think BBM, when it comes to Android and iOS, actually will be a bit of a hit.

20 days ago on How losing iMessage could mean losing your friends 2 replies

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You can also store video on there, and 3 minutes of 1080p video can be quite heavy (hundreds of MB in size, even), especially from one of the better smartphones/cameras out there…

28 days ago on Yahoo unveils the new Flickr with one terabyte of free space 1 reply

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Doesn’t require you to sign up for a social network to use, I’d say that’s a killer feature.

I deleted my Google Profile the minute this was announced. Summer is almost here, I got places to see and can do without being Google+-encumbered.

I do agree that they need to acquire some decent image processing tech/talent though…

28 days ago on Yahoo unveils the new Flickr with one terabyte of free space 1 reply

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6.5MP is the size of a 16:9 image from most 8MB smartphone cameras. So yes, they’re really emphasizing mobile, and that’s probably the size most people who use smartphones are uploading to their site.

28 days ago on Yahoo unveils the new Flickr with one terabyte of free space 1 recommend

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You’re baffled because you’re using the Facebook definition of Friend, which is random people you are “friendly with” on the internet.

We are using the real world definition of friend, which are people we know in real life who are on these social networks. Some of us keep very curated friend lists on these social/IM networks. 23 people on Facebook, and I personally know all of them.

Secondly, Facebook and Twitter have become popular as support channels. Companies are utilizing them as a more efficient way of providing support and having solutions being within easy reach for other customers who may have the same issue. Companies like Microsoft, TechSmith, Carriers, Skype, Samsung, HTC, Adobe, SwiftKey etc. are leveraging FB/Twitter as support channels and you can often have issues resolved on FB/Twitter before you can even get a real person on the phone. I’ve resolved several issues that way (even billing issues with AT&T, talking to someone on FB and having them call me even… so I never had to make a phone call at all).

Those same companies often simply auto-post stuff to G+, but they aren’t nearly as present or reliably responding there. In some cases, they’re completely absent or their G+ pages have been inactive for upwards of a year or more…

So, it’s Not simply about which RL friends are there. It’s also about businesses (especially small businesses) and organizations. Major sports governing bodies are present and active on FB but inactive or simply not on Google+ at all… Clubs have FB pages, but no G+ pages so unless you’re on FB you cannot keep up with things like Test Sessions and things like that, unless they have an email list.

A growing number of people are unwilling to be part of any IM network except Facebook and those that are built into their devices (via Microsoft Account, Apple ID, Google Account). Google+ is not something they’re going to utilize in any form or fashion and they certainly aren’t about to install “Google+” or “Hangouts” on their iPhones or iPads, which are majority used in the types of circles I’m around (some Androids, but none of them will touch Google+, they have Facebook).

Google+ faces many issues. Tying their messaging to Google+ is a huge strike against it, and SMS is useless unless it works equivalently to iMessage. Who cares about yet another SMS client. I sure don’t, especially not one that will likely be crippled compared tot he souped up SMS/MMS clients that Samsung/HTC ship on their phones (which can send a ton of different data types via MMS).

about 1 month ago on Exclusive: Inside Hangouts, Google's big fix for its messaging mess