Google Android catch-all

Malkroth wrote:

Would this be as easy to do with a 7" Fire tablet? Having never used a tablet before I am not sure how comfortable the 8" would be to hold for extended periods in one hand.

I wouldn't try to hold it up by a corner, but at 5" wide the 8" tablet isn't too bad when supported by my entire palm, which is pretty much how I hold the PaperWhite. The 7" has a much lower resolution screen, so while it's sort of passable for video, I wouldn't suggest reading on it--but I'll confess I'm a screen snob. The good news is that they do tend to be shown off in Targets and Best Buys if you want to see them in person.

I chose the Oppo R9s. It's too big, which I wasn't expecting. Wish I could have bought a brand new Nexus 5 instead. Oh well.

MannishBoy wrote:

Signed up for the Samsung S8+ beta to get Oreo. I should have known better than to go beta on a phone.

Issues I've seen:
-Decreased battery life (not horrible, but noticable)
-Occasional audio distortion that requires a reboot over audio jack (seems possibly related to switch from bluetooth output back to analog, but I'm not sure yet)
-SD card problems. Phone remounts the SD card with a different name (random text string) every time, so that my media apps looking to the SD card have to be reset every time I reboot.

Second and third bugs above work together to make it a really fun time. Every time the audio screws up, I have to reboot. Then I have to reset Pocket Cast and my audiobook apps.

Fun times.

I post this as a warning. I'll probably use Odin to go back to stock in the next few days. Not worth it right now.

I feel you. I opted into the Oreo beta for my 5X back in the summer. For the first few weeks of that, Swiftkey was crashing constantly, which was super annoying, but they eventually fixed it. I forgot I was opted into beta, then got upgraded to 8.1. Swiftkey is now back to crashing constantly. I can opt out, but they say doing that will wipe all my personal data, so I'm going to live with it, then opt out after 8.1 goes GA.

Does anyone know how to clear the gmail browser cookies? (not Chrome) I've been re-directed to a couple scams through slickdeals emails and I'm now finding the gmail browser is probably the weak link. I found out how to disable it but can't figure out how to clear it of any personal info or site logins.

Does anyone have any experience with the Moto series of phones currently? Looking at G, X, and Z right now for an update for the wife. Prefer G or X As they seem to suit her use of phone and they are cheaper as she tends to ruin phones.

My sister (Verizon subscriber) just got a Moto Z2 Play and is very happy with it, although she was coming from an original (2013) Moto X so almost anything would have seemed like a leap for her.

Motorola badly needs to rationalize their product line IMO.

Middcore wrote:

My sister (Verizon subscriber) just got a Moto Z2 Play and is very happy with it, although she was coming from an original (2013) Moto X so almost anything would have seemed like a leap for her.

Motorola badly needs to rationalize their product line IMO.

Thanks. Yeah we have Moto Droid Turbo 2s which were great until they suddenly started having issues. Looks like they are really attempting to create solid low cost alternatives to Google, Apple, & Samsung. Reviews are surprisingly good across the Moto line now. If I go this route I'll leave my feedback here.

Hobear wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with the Moto series of phones currently? Looking at G, X, and Z right now for an update for the wife. Prefer G or X As they seem to suit her use of phone and they are cheaper as she tends to ruin phones.

My wife went from a Moto G 1st gen (circa '13) to the new Moto G5. She loves the upgraded screen and camera but hates that Motorola dropped the notification light. Worth the $99 we paid.

Hobear wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with the Moto series of phones currently? Looking at G, X, and Z right now for an update for the wife. Prefer G or X As they seem to suit her use of phone and they are cheaper as she tends to ruin phones.

I got two Moto Z Plays from Verizon last winter. They were fantastic for the price. Nothing on the phone is the best. Everything on the phone is good. Solid camera, big screen with nice brightness, the Moto skin is lightweight and has nice features, pretty fluid. We have had only a single issue with them and that's due to my wife cracking the screen on every phone she ever owns. Her Z Play developed a single crack down the center. She dropped it. I didn't put a really thick case on it but it had a decent case. Of course she drops her phone roughly once a week. Still quite usable but a little annoying. My 14 year old son's phone is in perfect shape. Overall, if you like good but not best in class at a very reasonable price, Moto is a great way to go.

EvilHomer3k wrote:
Hobear wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with the Moto series of phones currently? Looking at G, X, and Z right now for an update for the wife. Prefer G or X As they seem to suit her use of phone and they are cheaper as she tends to ruin phones.

I got two Moto Z Plays from Verizon last winter. They were fantastic for the price. Nothing on the phone is the best. Everything on the phone is good. Solid camera, big screen with nice brightness, the Moto skin is lightweight and has nice features, pretty fluid. We have had only a single issue with them and that's due to my wife cracking the screen on every phone she ever owns. Her Z Play developed a single crack down the center. She dropped it. I didn't put a really thick case on it but it had a decent case. Of course she drops her phone roughly once a week. Still quite usable but a little annoying. My 14 year old son's phone is in perfect shape. Overall, if you like good but not best in class at a very reasonable price, Moto is a great way to go.

We picked up 2 Moto Z 2 Play phones on special. $192.Good sale and so far just as you say, solid phone that does it all very well. Bummed I lost wireless charging but I could get moto mods if I want to. A few of those look neat. We got some thin cases but on your note I might recommend a thicker case for my wife.

Do we talk about Google home here also?

Elected to get a home + mini with the sales going on.

Pure impulse buy. I think I'll grow into it. Podcast/Music on demand while I cook in the kitchen = more cooking and podcasting in the kitchen which sounds good to me.

I got a mini along with my Pixel 2XL; it's still in the box; I'm not sure I'll end up using it, or whether it'll be like the Echo - a neat idea that I end up unplugging and forgetting about.

I want an assistant/smart speaker, but I'm not comfortable with one of these big companies listening to me 24x7. I started looking into open source assistants, and there are a few: Jasper, Mycroft, etc, but they don't seem ready for primetime yet.

dewalist wrote:

I want an assistant/smart speaker, but I'm not comfortable with one of these big companies listening to me 24x7. I started looking into open source assistants, and there are a few: Jasper, Mycroft, etc, but they don't seem ready for primetime yet.

I think it is a conspiracy theory that they are listening 24x7. They are listening 24x7 for the words "Hey Google" or "Alexa" and only then do they start actually sending audio to the internet to be recorded and processed.

kazar wrote:
dewalist wrote:

I want an assistant/smart speaker, but I'm not comfortable with one of these big companies listening to me 24x7. I started looking into open source assistants, and there are a few: Jasper, Mycroft, etc, but they don't seem ready for primetime yet.

I think it is a conspiracy theory that they are listening 24x7. They are listening 24x7 for the words "Hey Google" or "Alexa" and only then do they start actually sending audio to the internet to be recorded and processed.

That and 90% of my life at home is.... not talking..

The real scary part is Google already knows me 95% between my personal + work email/things I starred on maps + the questions I answer for them/chrome cast to Netflix/Spotify on my android phone and on and on.

Google knows where I've vacationed + where I'm going anytime I book anything. This is honestly an economists worse nightmare for surrendering to companies your brain. Thing is the internet also is leveling the playing field for consumers, kinda.

I'm more weirded out by Amazon let you in your house delivery tbh.

I've started using DuckDuckGo for most of my searches, and I periodically clear out location history from my Google account. And Google already was found to be listening to more than they should have. I think Vizio was also caught listening through their TV's not that long ago. I'm not to the tin foil hat level yet, but I do think people should be more cautious about how much they let these big companies know about them - keep in mind that Google is an advertising company first and tech company second...

dewalist wrote:

I've started using DuckDuckGo for most of my searches, and I periodically clear out location history from my Google account. And Google already was found to be listening to more than they should have. I think Vizio was also caught listening through their TV's not that long ago. I'm not to the tin foil hat level yet, but I do think people should be more cautious about how much they let these big companies know about them - keep in mind that Google is an advertising company first and tech company second...

Tin foil hat on, but why do you think if your clear your history that Google wipes it completely? Wouldn't surprise me if they kept it.

It just seems to me that if you're worried about what a company like Google receives about you, you should actually deny that information, not give it and then request they delete it.

Citizen86 wrote:
dewalist wrote:

I've started using DuckDuckGo for most of my searches, and I periodically clear out location history from my Google account. And Google already was found to be listening to more than they should have. I think Vizio was also caught listening through their TV's not that long ago. I'm not to the tin foil hat level yet, but I do think people should be more cautious about how much they let these big companies know about them - keep in mind that Google is an advertising company first and tech company second...

Tin foil hat on, but why do you think if your clear your history that Google wipes it completely? Wouldn't surprise me if they kept it.

It just seems to me that if you're worried about what a company like Google receives about you, you should actually deny that information, not give it and then request they delete it.

I think legally once they offer you the option to erase it, they have to do so or else there would be huge lawsuits. If they say "we track you and we keep it indefinitely" then people have no complaint. That's totally true - that's why I'm trying to find other apps and tools whenever possible. I use Firefox instead of Chrome, Bitwarden for my passwords, etc. I like in Android that you can set permissions for apps, so that things like a flashlight app can't get your location and such. Unfortunately I haven't yet found anything open-source that is better than Maps...

My V20 has been worrisome recently. I am getting a lot of image retention issues at the edges of the screen. I only notice it when I'm in a dark room, but I'm worried it's going to get worse. It's not burn in...yet. I think I am going to have to switch off of Sprint. Sprint's inability to activate non Sprint phones, while once not an issue for me, has become a pain. My wife is due for a new iPhone at the beginning of the year, so I'll probably switch to ATT then.

I just switched to ATT. They pay back up-to $650 dollars if you switch which should be more than enough to cover my cost of leaving Sprint. I got the deal they have now where you get two iPhone 8s for the price of one. They also told me I can keep and use my V20. I just have to activate the iPhone then activate my V20. My plan is to trade the iPhone for a OnePlus 5 T with someone.

OnePlus 5T arrived yesterday. This thing does not feel like a budget phone.

Minor annoyance. The rotation sensor is waaay to sensitive. Every time I set the phone down the screen rotates. I was getting annoyed at the iPhone for never allowing the screen to rotate. This is the other extreme.

Just got 8.1 pushed to my Pixel tonight. Not sure what was in it, but the home screen has been changed again. Icons look better at least.

Seems snappy. Will watch battery life the rest of the week.

Stele wrote:

Just got 8.1 pushed to my Pixel tonight. Not sure what was in it, but the home screen has been changed again. Icons look better at least.

Seems snappy. Will watch battery life the rest of the week.

If it is a pixel 2, it now uses the hardware to process the photos you take. They added AR stickers and the Google Now piece looks a bit better.

What's a good resource for learning about how my new Android phone works? As an iPhone user throughout the smartphone era, I just switched to a Pixel 2. I like a lot of things about it, but there are lots of little details that don't match my iPhone experience. I suspect there are settings I can adjust to get the experience I'm looking for, but I'm finding it challenging to figure some of these minor things out. For any given question I can find a few dozen google hits discussing, but often it's about older versions of Android, or suggesting an additional app that I'd rather not download, etc... I'm wondering if there are any key reference sites any of you all look to when looking into this sort of issue. Thanks!

Here's a skin link.

I haven't found a single resource for all that because the things people like about iPhones vary. Some people are just glad some "features" are out, and some will go through significant lengths to get their way.

In general, interdevice syncing is more of a bear with Android so you'll need to spend some time setting that up. For everything else, I don't know of a function that isn't just in the Settings menu for Android.

If you can't find anything, post questions here and I'm sure someone can help.

Pixel 2 is ordered along with a Project Fi phone plan. Looking forward to the upgrade from a S7.

Bought a Pixel XL 2. So far, I love it. I figure if the screen gets wonky or there are other problems, Google has been the kind of company to compensate for annoyances and keeping people happy, so, if it's garbage, good things happen down the road.

Speaking of annoyances . . .

My wife has a Nexus 5X. Last week, it suddenly started bootlooping. Googled it, and it's sometimes a catastrophic hardware failure, sometimes you can just re-image and it resets. It didn't reset, so, fortunately, it's under warranty, so I sent it off to LG for repair. As she can't live without her phone and I'd kept our old Nexus 5s around so my daughter could use them as a camera and do other artsy projects with them, I bought a new SIM card that would fit in the old 5 (I figured I'm essentially renting a phone for her for two weeks for a $25 SIM card, and it's worth it). I power it up, insert the card, spend loads of time updating Android, and give her her really old phone back.

Two days later it starts bootlooping, so I'm pretty sure she must have driven over an old Romani Android developer who cursed her phone for generations to come.

So, I put it in my old Nexus 5, spent loads of time updating Android, and now I'm just waiting for it to blow up again.

I got a Pixel 2, mostly for the camera. They're finally getting good enough to tempt me back into a nicer smartphone. So, I like the case I got, should be good, but the screen protector I got isn't sealing around the edges (about a mm all around). Has anyone else had this with the Pixel 2? I've never had it happen with tempered glass before. I ordered what looked to be one of the most popular tempered glass screen protectors, so I'm a little baffled.

Edit: I see some of the other screen protectors mentioning beveled edges creating a halo. Doh! I guess I need to do a little more research.

So here are 2 of my random Android/Pixel 2 questions that have come up in my first week or two of android use:

--when listening to audio on Bluetooth, I can hit the play button on the device (either headphones or car Bluetooth kit) to pause audio that's playing (usually a podcast) but can't hit the button again to resume playing (which worked in iOS just fine). Is there a setting to enable this?

--when driving, I like using the assistant to say Hey Google, send a text. But I can't figure out how to get the assistant to bring me back to Waze without me touching the screen, which reduces the benefit of handsfree texting. Is there a command I can speak?