Nothing has changed

pixcel25

The title is a wordplay on how Nothing has changed to much at the same time to less .as a really active member of the community , and a Fanboy since phone 2 launch there are some issues which has been bugging me a lot. Hope the team takes this as positive criticism .

The Community has gone down the drain

The community has always had the issue of low quality posts, And I am well aware the moderators don’t ban anyone for voicing their opinions. But I feel the team is the main culprit behind this. The team is so inactive on this community except @Rob ⚡️ and @adbo no other member is active here. I am not suggesting the Team to be super active here ,but I miss the old stuff of team members being present on a regular basis sometimes posting tear downs sometimes in interviews, Sometimes reasoning the decisions taken by them for a product. I am aware this still happens but its so rare it should at least be done on a monthly basis. the team has to seriously encourage quality posts, The team doesn’t respond much to quality stuff
there are so many talented members , why dont you collaborate with them more often ??.

The community being used as Ambassador marketing

Remember when Nothing Licensed really really good stock images , and then advertised them as pics clicked by the community using phone 3 . because I do, @Akis brushed it away saying it was a placeholder fault, and those images were going to be replaced later with real images

Dear @Akis I really hope you read this. the statement you gave is total modedit:redacted
here some thoughts about this situation from the waveform podcast (Mkbhd’s podcast)

Why weren’t obvious placeholders used?
Why did Nothing go out of its way to license really good images if they were going to be replaced anyway
Why were images clicked by the community from other Nothing devices used as placeholders?

you probably wont answer this because that is what Nothing has come to as a whole
Transparency in their Devices , Not in the company

Nothing just like any other company does mistakes but when its time own it . they are usually not vocal about it. That is pretty huge for a company that prides itself for its transparency.

Nos is devolving

I am not gonna lie, I was hyped when the first beta dropped , but now that I realise this is more of a 3.5 update rather then 4.0
the major changes we got were

lut and presets (3 series users had this in 3.2)
dark mode (cool but its not that hard to implement to justify a major android upgrade)
ES upgrades (half the community wont be receiving this has they don’t have the essential key)
Ai playground (which I am very skeptical about
Playground is definitely using An AI API to make it work lets say Chatgpt for the sake of the argument
you guys are being charged per prompt being generated how is this not loss making ? what are your plans to keep it sustainable when you guys release it to general public??)
are you guys going to monetize it??to keep it sustainable?
The teams current approach of Manually reviewing code of the AI widgets to make sure it doesn’t malfunction is Not going to last long considering Millions will be using it on launch? what are your plans on that??

I have listed all the major stuff being added/changed in 4.0
thats it. other companies do this in a minor upgrade
I understand minimalism is part of nothing ethos but now i suspect its being used as an excuse for the team to do the bare minimum but I just cant prove it.

some days ago Gallery was updated . A post was made to address it
the major change???
they added the same photo editing features of the gallery available for video editing

are you guys modedit:redacted kidding me. there is so much to do and thats what you do??
why are the LUTs imported by the user not available in editing features?
why is the AI categorization so AS? you guys promised this Last year its still not up to the mark?
what happened to the AI image up-scaling??

[TO Community members who are new check this]

Nos 3 The team said they will finally get to express themselves through the OS , showing transparency in the Os and hyped the community using pretty visuals. Click the above link to see what I am talking about 👆and since they have expressed themselves by adding a dark mode

no new widgets
no good AI features (ES space is mid at best)
No new design advancement

but hey the community doesn’t care about this . they want only 2 new clock faces as their major android upgrade

Essential space is a glorified Ai summarizer

Winfred if you are reading this thank you for giving me a chance to test it out, Because Nothing didnt.
Es is just a basic Ai summariser. But hyped up to the same level as AGI
I have tested it , its not that great but any criticism pointed towards it is ignored
because it is in its beta preview form even after 6 months according to carl

heres the exact thing carl said btw

the team boasts it being used by a majority , but even the team knows majority of those clicks are accidental
this happens on a daily basis to my friend winfred who uses 3a as his main device
I have said it once, I will say it till i go to my grave , every phone company is waiting patiently hoping
to see one company beginning to charge for their currently free AI features , after which they can follow suit. I can bet everything ES+ or ES pro is around the corner the bubble is really close to bursting
call me a lunatic I don’t care

Using beta as an excuse to not improve stuff

news widget
app drawer
and the list continues this stuff remain in beta because they are using AI in the background which can do mistakes , and when it does Nothing can avoid accountability .
just god dammit fix your stuff guys , why is 1 year not enough for you to remove stuff out of beta

Nudging reviewers to give overall positive reviews

On paper Nothing doesnt influence their reviews
But I am going to put a serious Accusation on them , I in fact think they do indirectly influence their reviews

Gifting creators goodies on occasions, (cant you give those to some deserving community members
who sat day and night making the almost useless Glyph Matrix have some purpose)

cherry picking their community reviewers

whats the criteria for a community member to review Nothing products ?
have to be a creator?? NO!! , @CMF1_hacker got to review products
ok so be active on the community?? again NO!!
Because I havent neither many other active members
the truth is as long as you glaze Nothing’s device and give the most mild and soft criticism you stand a chance to review their product.
don’t believe me , check phone 3 Community reviews

all of them praised phone 3 , they compared phone 3 vs its predecessor phone2 which was sold for half its price, while phone 3 stood no chance vs it competitors in its price range . yet no reveiw was way to very critical about it. if they did Nothing would not send another reveiw unit to them again
maybe next time stop sending goodies to creators to be in their good books and invest back in the community

Carl as Nothings ambassador

I used to think carl as the coolest Ceo ever but that is no longer true. The thing that made him cool was his opinions no scared to stand out. currently all his tweets or thoughts are just centered in advertising his products, makes sense but makes him the same as every other CEO to exist
I havent seen him give a bold honest take in a long while

the fact that he keeps on hyping AI , while his on company uses Ai to summarize and generate wallpapers is ironic
heres carl hyping Phone3 as a ai phone

what we actually got was gemini intergration on the app drawer such bar instead of the AI assistant they hyped us up for

Release of slop products

why is nothing churning out products every month
do we really needed a 3a pro that has a better camera as the only differentiator?? it is just baffling
do we really need cmf watch 3 pro which was a minor spec bump??
did we really need a budget brand CMF to release a plus, pro , base and A version of their earbuds??
cmf headphones were released with 00 hype
why doe cmf phone 2 have pro in its name
do you guys have plans to release a Affordable version of an already Affordable device???
why do you guys have to release a new product almost every month and hype it up to its max

why are your audio products defective??

almost every nothing audio user i see has a issue with their buds irrespective of the model
some have battery issues some have glue issues?? is there a specific reason

please do address this complaints, its takes guts for a company to address its faults
I am probalbly going to be inactive in this community for a while, as you may know i am a very active member of the community for about 2 years . but Nothings shift in direction to focus more on marketing less on community is something I do not find fun

I know no one will care that I am going to be inactive , as for a fact another indian will replace me praising nothing 😂, I know its a bit of a long rant but till the next time I post good bye

Prabhu_

pixcel25 Nothing OS isn’t holding my interest anymore, with slow updates and missing features. I’m thinking of trying One UI.

Womey

pixcel25

I recently had major issues with my Health Data and I had a support member personally DM with me, to find a resolution.

Issue that occurred for me, was when pairing my CMF watch 3 pro, all previous Watch pro 2 data became unstable in the Health section of Nothing X, accumulated in the months prior.

Team was able to migrate my data effectively. Also, my Watch 3 pro was stuck in firmware limbo, in which the support pushed my update.

I genuinely have had a great experience with support, but I do have to mention, the support who helped me from what I could see I was the first community post they had posted to in nearly 2 years. I know that does not show DMs, but it is telling as the OP mentioned, Rob & Adbo really carry the weight on the Community here from a management perspective and other support are helpful, but seldom get involved in Community posts.

ranaa! 🌠

pixcel25

i’m going back to old threads because i haven’t opened this site in a while, sorry for replying in such an old thread (about a month lmao)

the original concept of this company, i believe was “less is more” no? that’s how i’ve been interpreting it this whole time when a former friend of mine introduced me into this brand. this company had a lot of potential but they’ve just been wasting it all because of popularity, everything feels inconsistent. they’ve been using the “less is more” argument to terrible specifications on a “flagship” device.

every NothingOS update i’ve seen so far just made me think “oh man this company is just going down the drain” but nobody on the internal side of the company seems to really care, as long as they get sales i don’t think they’d care.

pixcel25 The team is so inactive on this community

and i thought this company was managed by community managers and sales managers instead of proper development teams. hell i’m convinced half of the company runs the youtube channel or they’ve just been high, especially the design team.

pixcel25 ES upgrades (half the community wont be receiving this has they don’t have the essential key)

ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI. they just wanted a reason to sell a new product honestly, same goes with other companies.

pixcel25 why is nothing churning out products every month

💸 taking advantage of the market, of course!~ making 1 consistent product? what’s that

pixcel25 do you guys have plans to release a Affordable version of an already Affordable device???

reading this after a month feels really funny because… you know what happened cough phone 3a lite cough (they already have a brand for budget devices, so why make a budget device for a midrange product line, like CMF exists for a reason. oh well people will buy it anyway because “it’s just (insert indian currency number for phone 3a lite i can’t be arsed to insert) broooooooooooooooooo”

pixcel25 almost every nothing audio user i see has a issue with their buds irrespective of the model
some have battery issues some have glue issues?? is there a specific reason

terrible qc, no other explanation. and getting someone to claim the warranty for the product is a pain in the macaroni too, if you live outside of India of course.

VanshDoneria

Yeah true I’m also feeling quite underwhelmed by the nos4 notes.

AbiS_MjZL72iTVk

Waiting for that one “hacker” to say “No you are wrong, Nothing is always right” , so that he can have some goodies😂

CYPHER_LYNX

AbiS_MjZL72iTVk Bro 😂 fr

Sinik

You right, i’m dumping my nothing phone 2…. never was a flagship.

Stereobasic

Au revoir !

pixcel25

Stereobasic 👍

Hxri_Omm

They haven’t improved the fluidity and animation in os 4.0 still other os feel smoother I think they don’t want to copy the smoothness bcoz nothing is different😂😅

TupePotato

Your point is understable but there’s a reason, they innovate towards their goals which people may or may not be a fan of. You also have to understand this is a 3 year old company. Their software and hardware works for other including myself, it’s not for everyone. Maybe Nothing isnt for you. What exactly are you looking for from a phone or OS?

AbiS_MjZL72iTVk

TupePotato They compare themselves with Apple for everything ,They make hype like anything, but when we complain , here is an excuse “oh so sorry , nothing is a small company”….??

@CMF1_hacker Camera is good on your phone , what about the other model users, especially Phone 2 , who are waiting for years for their cameras not to make oilpaints , instead of actual pictures , what about the shutter lag that they never cared about ? What about the essential features being gate keeped to older devices , so that more people will buy their new devices ? Ofc , glyph matrix is really a hardware bound feature , but what about the ES ? I saw you in another post saying “ditching GL and moving to GM is a major leap ” bro are you really sane , what about all the phones , that they’ve literally marketed with GL ,DITCHED ? Ofc you will not know , but possibly on their next device , they’ll ditch the GM too , and will move on with another gimmick , will you support that too ?

CMF1_hacker

I would like to step in and clarify a few things as my handle is being dragged through the mud somewhat.

I have no idea how these decisions are made internally as I simply enjoy posting here. I tested the NP3 pre-release because I tested the CMF1 quite a bit post-release and posted a lot of data to the community here. I also tested and continue to test the NP3 after its release, especially (a) the induction of thermal throttling (as this was a huge deal pre-release and it was finally installed in later updates of NOS 3.5 and now gone in NOS 4.0b, so yes the phone CANNOT complete a Wild Life Extreme Stress Test), (b) the camera with emphasis on clarity and Zoom pre-release.

The other testing regimes were by application and I applied, like anyone else, again, I have no idea how these were decided. I would say that I really test the hardware, such as the CMF3WP here: https://nothing.community/en/d/43127-cmf-watch-3-pro-a-device-i-want-to-recommend-but-cannot-at-least-not-yet as I’m looking for an inexpensive sport watch. At £79, the watch makes a lot of compromises and I have detailed them all (how/when/why GPS and HR is captured), I have found a workaround for their shortcomings and have found a third-party app that delivers what athletes in Europe and NA really want (Strava integration). However, I have also found that the onboard memory is extremely limited (to keep the price down) and that creates a ton of compromises. It’s all detailed in that thread. I would hardly say that I’m “glazing” in that review. I gave it a 4/10 in my first review.

I agree with a lot of your argumentation. We should be able to use shared “presets” on already taken photos/videos. This is obviously missing and the new Gallery seems a half measure.

I also agree that the community has gone downhill and has been through multiple rounds of constant complaints including:

the camera set up in ugly
8sg4 is not flagship, 7i glass, USB 2.0 (pre-release spec-racing essentially)
the INR price is too high
we need more NOTHING developed apps
NOS4 sucks as it is two clock faces only

Perhaps those are all true, but it does seem like a concerted effort. However, the Indian market is huge, with a strong command of English and this will dwarf the EU market and the non-existent NA market, so the forum leans very heavily that way.

I draw the line, and have since I started posting that NOS 2.6 and 3.0 were great on the CMF1, with people wanting to en-crap-ify NOS with bling from other brands that offers no functionality. I didn’t understand how good NOS was when I bought the CMF1 (two CMF1s in fact) as I bought it for the modularity (I bought some 3D printed back from members here). In the NP3/NOS 3.5 hardware/software combo, it reached peak performance of a stellar all-rounder phone. I get 10-11h SoT battery life, the cameras are solid-to-great and NOS is sublime due it’s greyscale minimalism. The GM is great to not get distracted (I am on screen usually approx 12+ hours per day with my employment!) and overall I find the NP3/NOS 3.5 package quote compelling at £799, or under £300 if you sold your old NP1/2 second-hand and got the £300 discount. The ES key is fun and experimental and it will be interesting to see which direction NOS heads with it. The playground is an exceptional idea from my perspective.

If defending NOS from additional junk being added, e.g. transparency, material 3 expressive, long/tall clocks, fake dynamic Islands, etc…, makes me a “glazer” then so be it. All of those people desiring those things can head to any other brand, but I feel that NOS should stay minimal and not collect useless options from other brands, as NOTHING/cmf will always lose that battle to giant manufacturers and will lose what NOTHING TECHNOLOGY LIMITED special.

pixcel25

CMF1_hacker I by no means meant to call you specifically a glazer , I was referring community reveiws as whole
done by the members , they compared phone 3 with a device half its price (phone 2) and compared it with flagships
while being not so vocal about the price point dismissing it as a minor inconvenience despite that not being the case.

by no means was I intentionally meaning to single you out and put the blame game on you, I just used you as an example because of how active you are on this community

TupePotato

AbiS_MjZL72iTVk okay, but what are your issue with the phone or it’s OS?

Make no mistake their initial goal for their users.

Making tech invisible from our lives, giving back users their power and design motto of being transparent (to emphasize the concept “nothing”)

The name “Nothing” reflects the company’s goal to create minimalist products with a focus on design and a user experience that aims to remove barriers between people and technology.

That’s why people calls it boring because it’s “nothing”. Again maybe its not the right product for you.

I’m not saying it’s perfect phone or company. I do face some issues specially on beta. But based on your needs from a phone it seems you need some features that nothing doesnt have and other OS has. which I believe is fine and they kept suggestions open for everyone. But let’s not forget what Nothing stands for.

CMF1_hacker

AbiS_MjZL72iTVk I can only comment on what I test. I don’t comment on other devices that I haven’t used.

I find the GL to GM an excellent decision. I’m totally cool with the GM going, if something better replaces it. I believe any sane person would find it hard to recommend GL over GM in any reasonable manner.

I’ll tell you what, I didn’t complain that removable backs were removed from the CMF2P as I still use my CMF1.

Likewise, if the Phone (4) has a non-GM, non-GL “gimmick,” I also won’t mind as my NP3 still functions as intended.

Hxri_Omm

TupePotato Bro i think they are lazy i noticed the animation are exactly same in 3.0 and 4.0 and I understand they have to stand out from other os and dont want to copy iphone but they can copy iphone in terms of smoothness and animation atleast they should improve this

AbiS_MjZL72iTVk

TupePotato “Nothing is here to make tech fun again” I have heard it somewhere🤔 Ig , ohh from the founder himself

pixcel25

TupePotato I disagree with your opinion, if thats the case why not release stock android without google services
like the light phone ?? wont that be more effective??

there are some valid criticisms, specially the direction there are heading, with all the fake hype being created
OS is just one of them , I like the overall theme but they use theme minimalist to sometimes hide the mistakes from their
side

dont you feel the video editing features which are the same as photo editing should have been available on the gallery when photo editting was released??

TupePotato

Hxri_Omm this is an Android phone. It feels and works as very close to stock android OS like pixel phones has.

Stereobasic

Hxri_Omm “Animation” ? But what is this nonsense? Honestly, it’s nonsense. What’s wrong with the animations? We don’t even notice them, it’s perfectly fluid, invisible. I honestly believe that if you’re here, seeing problems with something as insignificant as that, it’s because everything is already perfect. This “animation” thing is ridiculous, you’ve gone into another world, and this world isn’t very interesting.

CMF1_hacker

pixcel25 I do wish that the reviews would be more in-depth, like my watch review.

having said that, I as struggling with the CMF headphones Pro, as there’s only some much functionality to test, compared to a watch/phone, so that will be more generic sadly (I have no acoustical testing equipment, again sadly).

TupePotato

pixcel25

AbiS_MjZL72iTVk yup, and guess which other companies has Glyphs? Who has Robot-like designed phone? Ain’t that a cool tech?

Do you know the reason why they’re called “Nothing” as well?

AbiS_MjZL72iTVk

CMF1_hacker So you haven’t tested other devices , so how can you tell people to not complain , not state a issue , saying that nothing is perfect ?

Anonymous931

pixcel25 dont you feel the video editing features which are the same as photo editing should have been available on the gallery when photo editting was released??

I mean, Google released video editing to Google Photos solid SEVEN YEARS after introducing Google Photos to start with. Not every feature has to be released immediately, when there are many existing options and all of them are perfectly capable (while you wait for the less capable one to improve).

Edit: Six years, sorry. Photos was introduced in May 2015, video editing was added on June 15, 2021.

CMF1_hacker

AbiS_MjZL72iTVk I haven’t stated that NOTHING is perfect and I challenge you to quote me on that.

In addition, I challenge you to quote me, where I stated on a non-CMF1/NP3 device that a user doesn’t has a problem (unless I state that my phones don’t do that).

I think that you’re effectively putting words into my mouth. Rather ineffectively as well.