A few other things are worth noting about the Nexus S videos Google put out. It's a little surprising just how little information Google actually gave people in their two videos on the Official Google Blog. The second video is an ad spot that shows almost nothing unique about the phone. There is more time spent on the person's walking shoes than on anything the phone is providing. The first video, which we discussed a little, has this section at about :50 where the unnamed Google representatives start listing off features of the phone. I can't be the only one who is underwhelmed by what they are seemingly excited about. They spend more than enough time talking about the NFC, or Near Field Communication, capabilities of the phone. While NFC is going to be a big part of the mobile industry going forward, it has almost no utility for a customer today.
So why spend time talking about it? Maybe because there isn't much else to talk about. Again, the keyboard and text selection improvements are really useful, but they're not something you can spend time selling since they are essentially fixes for poorly-implemented elements of Android up to this point. They're also software-related, and not Nexus S-specific. So what is unique to the Nexus S? Why, the curved screen! When rumors of the curved screen made their rounds over the last month, there was plenty of speculation about whether or not this was for improved viewing angles or readability. According to Google's own Nexus S features page, no, this is just so that "the curved glass screen fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and along the side of your face." Now, I'm not sure in what way the glass on the side opposite one's hand has to do with the back of the phone, but I do know that I've always been annoyed by the flat glass screens we've all been dealing with for years. How else can you explain my recent phone choice, pictured below?
