Ok the cynic in me hears: "Buy this $400 phone that becomes about as useful as a Nokia candy bar phone of old if you turn off Google Web and Location services."
Does anyone know if the camera features work if you turn off the tracking bits? I realize I'm a bad data cow for kicking at the milking machine when I'm in the barn but it has become more painful for me of late.
> Why would the camera not work? You won't get unlimited storage, but you can buy a non-google photo backup service.
You could ask why do any number of services that Google advertises as "phone features" not work when you disable Google's ability to track you? Google sells the data it collects, it is part of their revenue model, and the only way to enforce that you give it to them is to deny you access to things if you opt not to. It is of course their right to do so, and so they do. It just gets more and more egregious.
My favorite example is that Google won't let you save "places" in the Google Maps application if you don't turn on location services. Apple Maps can save your locations just fine, even my Garmin in-car Navigator with no Internet connectivity at all can do that. But Google won't let you, unless you accede to letting them milk your data for their own use.
Google camera needs Google play services. If you use aosp, you lose Google camera. You are free to use other camera apps, whose output will generally not be as good as Google camera's.
Does anyone know if the camera features work if you turn off the tracking bits? I realize I'm a bad data cow for kicking at the milking machine when I'm in the barn but it has become more painful for me of late.