Google Android catch-all

Huh, I never see right light camera alerts, ever. Maybe people around here just don't bother to add them in Waze. I didn't even know you could silence specific alerts!

My car icon is just the old blue arrow, like it has always been. Can that be changed? An open wheel race car sounds much more cool.

Yeah, Car Icon is under
- Display
- More Display Options
- Car Icon

Specific alerts are under
- Display
- Reports

Bummed that you can't have a tank as your icon.

Bummed that I don't have an actual tank as my vehicle.

r013nt0 wrote:

Yeah, Car Icon is under
- Display
- More Display Options
- Car Icon

Specific alerts are under
- Display
- Reports

Thank you! I now drive a real nice open wheel race car too.

I'm putting off the upgrade of my note 8 and going with the new Microsoft phone next year that they recently demoed.

There is a app called Tasker that isn't easy to use. It is kind of like a mini IFTTT self contained on the phone. It can intercept a alert and silence it. That isn't the only thing it can do but I saw the complaint about notices. You could do something like every time X app is open send a email to somewhere. Or lets say you have security system that sends you a notification that the window is open. You can have tasker intercept the notification and play a sound file with your voice saying the window is open or have it send you a email or do something else.

Note I don't know how to do any of that stuff yet. I just know it is possible. I still have to sit down a learn the app. The big downside is that official documentation is poor to non existence.

Don't know if it would apply be Locale is a more limited but simpler to use alternative to Tasker.

Wow r/android is just a sh*thole of Pixel vs Galaxy users today.

I have had the Pixel 4XL for a week now. Overall, it is a Pixel. I had the 2XL before and it doesn't feel that much different, which to me is a good thing. I feel my opinions of the device differ from many of the reviewers.

Screen

The screen is slightly brighter then the 2XL and I had forgotten all the controversy about the 2XL having a blueish screen. I probably got used to it but looking at them side by side, you can clearly see the 2XL had a colder temperature.

The biggest complaint I keep hearing about is the bezel on the phone. I don't mind a phone that wants to reduce that bezel, but not at the cost of any oddly shaping of the screen. The idea of a notch was one of the worst things to come out of smartphones in the past two years and when the 3XL added it, I got concerned that I wouldn't be able to avoid it. Thankfully Google realized how bad a notch is, and went back with a bezel. One day someone might figure out how to have all that tech under the display, but until then, no notch please.

The one thing I disliked about the screen is that it isn't square. They round the corners which does make it look nicer but I have seen many instances where an app puts something in the top corner and it gets cut off because the screen isn't square.

Camera

I probably won't be able to give much in the way of info on this. When phones started putting cameras on them I thought it was a dumb idea. Why put a camera on a phone that will be substandard to a real camera, and this is probably still true today. But I realize that while a real camera is probably still a better solution if you are really serious about taking photos, it is nice to have a camera always available. That being said, the camera on the 4XL is the best I have used so far. I really like that I just point, shoot and usually get something that looks decent. There has been a lot of complaint about the lack of a wide lens but as a person who only takes pictures of my dog and cats when they do something cute, I doubt I will ever use it.

Sound

The 2XL and Nexus 6P both had front facing stereo speakers. I was concerned with the speaker configuration on the 4XL, but playing music on it has blown my mind. I wouldn't compare it to a good set of headphones or decent stereo system but I feel it sounds better then my Google Home devices which is pretty much all speaker.

Google added a Pixel feature (not sure if it is 4 specific) where it will close caption any audio source that is playing if you want it to. I can have my speaker off and watch any video or audio content and mostly be able to read what is being said. I was watching a twitch stream the other day and was reading what the streamer was saying.

Security

Face unlock has been pretty responsive. Not as great as everyone else makes it out to be, but I never used competing solutions so I have nothing to compare it with. Overall I feel that it is a poor choice. I criticized Apple when they added it to their phones and I criticize Google. Unlocking a phone should be an active operation. Using a face as a second factor or quick unlock is ok, but it should always require the person to actively request the unlock. With a fingerprint scanner, I would put my finger on the sensor when I wanted to unlock the phone. This would allow me to look at the ambient display to see if I have any messages waiting or what time it is without unlocking the phone. With face unlock, every time I pick up my phone and look at it, the phone unlocks. There is a setting that prevents it from unlocking but I still need to push the power button to put it back to sleep.

A lot of reviewers have been criticizing the issue where you can unlock the phone while asleep. I feel like this is an issue that is blown way out of proportion. Most people aren't worried about someone knocking them out, taking their phone and unlocking it to access their stuff. Some people are concerned that their children might take their phone and unlock it while they were sleeping, but still seems like a really really rare use case. The old fingerprint solution was not more secure then what the 4XL has to offer. I could knock you out and use your finger to unlock your phone. Overall I prefer the 4XL solution since I can unlock my phone even with a pair of sunglasses on.

Thanks Kazar! I've been on the fence on getting it from my 2XL or wait until next year. It seems like I will enjoy it though so I'll wait until Black Friday.

If you have the 2XL it is a good replacement. My 2XL was starting to have battery life issues and the fingerprint scanner stopped working so it was time for me.

I realized a few other points to bring up.

1. The battery life. When I go to bed it is usually hovering around 15% and this is without charging at all during the day. And I have been using it a lot during the day (more then normal). It supports wireless charging so I might get something for work but it would just be so I never have to worry.

2. Radar. Many reviewers say it is hit or miss. For me, it has been very accurate. Out of 10 swipes, only one will fail. But the interesting thing is when my wife tries the feature, it only works 50% of the time. I can't say if it is due to something biological like body temperature in the hands (I tend to have warmer hands) or if it is technique. If it is the latter, I tend to do a flick like I am shoeing away an animal or something aside while I see others try a full arm motion type swipe.

It was announced today the 1st-gen Pixel gets no more security updates after December. Kinda salty about this as I had no plans or need to replace mine and I guess now I need to think about it.

kazar wrote:

Camera

I probably won't be able to give much in the way of info on this. When phones started putting cameras on them I thought it was a dumb idea. Why put a camera on a phone that will be substandard to a real camera, and this is probably still true today.

"The best camera in the world is the one you have with you when you need it"
-paraphrasing somebody, somewhere.

Everyone enjoying how google maps is sneaking in ads when giving directions? I had it say "turn right after the KFC" today. I'm more amused than annoyed.

I've heard those for awhile now. Seems to me it's just trying to give directions in a more natural way by providing landmarks rather than just relying on street names, which can be hard to see.

I used the beta AR navigation while walking around in Romania. It was interesting to see, and worked similarly to what was described in Soonish. After Google Maps requested access to the camera, I held the phone up, and it analyzed the rooflines of the buildings around me to figure out where I was looking. Then it projected floating animated 3-D arrows onto the screen showing me where to walk, along with floating street names. As I moved the phone around, it was able to keep the arrows fixed in their apparent position in space.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

I've heard those for awhile now. Seems to me it's just trying to give directions in a more natural way by providing landmarks rather than just relying on street names, which can be hard to see.

I'm just curious if companies pay Google for it. I assumed so.

r013nt0 wrote:
kazar wrote:

Camera

I probably won't be able to give much in the way of info on this. When phones started putting cameras on them I thought it was a dumb idea. Why put a camera on a phone that will be substandard to a real camera, and this is probably still true today. But I realize that while a real camera is probably still a better solution if you are really serious about taking photos, it is nice to have a camera always available.

"The best camera in the world is the one you have with you when you need it"
-paraphrasing somebody, somewhere.

FTFY

deftly wrote:

I used the beta AR navigation while walking around in Romania.

Yeah it's been really good. Back on July 4 weekend we were staying downtown somewhere and walking everywhere for a couple days and I loved it.

Anyone using old android tablets for anything? I was thinking of using my original nexus to monitor a camera but it is kind of small for that. Maybe a digital frame if the monitor doesn't work out. I have a remote on my current tablet and all types of reader. Might be useless.

I have an old Kindle Fire set up on my meditation table to play relaxing music and show pretty pictures. It's nice to have something dedicated to that task and already set up anytime I want to use it.

That does sound nice.

I use an old Nexus 10 as a sim racing dashboard.

I have mine mounted near by bedroom door and it serves as my alarm clock and weather station.
Plus I can take it off the mountings to use in the kitchen as my recipe book.

kazar wrote:

FTFY

You didn't, but okay.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Anyone using old android tablets for anything? I was thinking of using my original nexus to monitor a camera but it is kind of small for that. Maybe a digital frame if the monitor doesn't work out. I have a remote on my current tablet and all types of reader. Might be useless.

I use my old Oneplus One (phone) with LineageOS as a remote. It's got the Harmony Hub software, but it's also got the individual apps for setting up the various connected devices in case something isn't working. The only downside is it's a bit slow and a bit small, but I only have one tablet, purchased this year, so it hasn't aged out and relegated itself to dedicated remote-control duty yet.

I have an old Nexus 7 mounted on the back of a kitchen cabinet I use as a controller for my sonos system.

Running it in kiosk mode makes it into a nice dedicated device for it.

Kiosk mode?

Android has a feature called "Kiosk Mode" which lets you set an app to run and only that app will display.

I've used it with the Wyze app for babysitters as a baby monitor, etc. It's a really cool feature.

I need to look into that!