Google Android catch-all

Fedaykin98 wrote:

There is an interesting point to be made here about whether it's more useful to roll out 5G right now or to improve 4G coverage and throughput.

4G coverage in the states sucks ass if you are outside of a city or interstate and improving access would be great, but there just ain't money in it so left as is the focus will be on 5G which maybe will help I dunno someone who is not me a normal person who uses the internet for work and a ton of stuff, but I can already watch a youtube video on the bus so who cares.

boogle wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

There is an interesting point to be made here about whether it's more useful to roll out 5G right now or to improve 4G coverage and throughput.

4G coverage in the states sucks ass if you are outside of a city or interstate and improving access would be great, but there just ain't money in it so left as is the focus will be on 5G which maybe will help I dunno someone who is not me a normal person who uses the internet for work and a ton of stuff, but I can already watch a youtube video on the bus so who cares.

Given 5Gs shorter range, I'll be shocked if more people end up with access.

The 5G T Mobile is rolling out on the 600mhz spectrum will have much longer range and better building penetration with not terrible speeds.

From the work I do I understand there's a few ways big tech companies are looking to market 5G, but the main one seems to be this:

Higher speeds but also significantly reduced latency. Critical for commercial businesses that need devices to make time critical decisions based on data sent to the cloud. For consumer, a better experience playing games via streaming services on mobile devices, e.g. Stadia

Also T mobile is rolling out home internet plans on 4G LTE/5G, which I'm praying will be a kick in the pants to Comcast once it becomes more widely available. If 5G truly gets latency down to cable/fiber levels, then we could finally see decent competition in that market.

EvilDead wrote:

@Malor:

As a hotspot

With the extremely draconian bandwidth caps, again: not actually useful.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Also T mobile is rolling out home internet plans on 4G LTE/5G, which I'm praying will be a kick in the pants to Comcast once it becomes more widely available. If 5G truly gets latency down to cable/fiber levels, then we could finally see decent competition in that market.

T-Mobile has invited me to enroll with their internet access here in Gainesville. For $50/mo it's tempting, but their signal really sucks here as they haven't rolled out any 600MHz in central FL. Hopefully they get it going soon, because Florida currently looks like this...

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/efjomzv.jpg)

Thanks, Qualcomm: Mandatory 5G means phones now ship with disabled 5G modems

Last year, Qualcomm had a more sensible, flexible design for its first-ever 5G compatible chip, the Snapdragon 855. That chip had an integrated 4G modem—needed in every single market—and had a separate 5G modem as an optional extra. 4G connectivity would be more power-efficient than 5G on the Snapdragon 855 because the 4G modem was integrated and the 5G modem was not. This year, Qualcomm "fixed" that power discrepancy by making 4G as bad as 5G and pulled both modems off the main chip.

That's a pretty dick move, Qualcomm. Definitely not going to consider a flagship phone until the modems are properly integrated.

Upgraded from a Pixel 2 to a Pixel 4 today. I am pleased without being particularly impressed in any way. Getting rid of the fingerprint scanner was..... a decision.

What's all this then?

My s8 is dying, so I had been planning on getting an unlocked s20+ (I'm on Verizon, with no plans to change carriers anytime soon). I'm completely illiterate when it comes to cell tech. Is the science saying such a device would be less useful than the Verizon version of the same phone?

I believe the only difference is that the Verizon version is going to have a lot of bloat on it.

It's basically bloat + Verizon visual voicemail vs less bloat but some tinkering and no visual voicemail.

Be careful because sometimes they do really shady things like charging you if you want to make your phone a hotspot. They lock out free features so they can charge you for them. Then you might not get updates to the OS as fast or at all.

That is why I dropped Verizon. They pushed an update that made push notifications to stop working and when the fix came out they wouldn't make it available.

Many years ago, I worked for the Sony Ericsson joint venture up until they disbanded. One of the perks was getting free unlocked phones. They were all GSM, so at the time, we were limited to T-mobile or AT&T. I could never go back to a locked phone after that. All the extra bloat they load on the phone isn't worth the discounts.

If you want the latest tech but don't want a phone sold by your carrier, you need to be careful when looking at the specs and knowing what your carrier is going to be using. If you want some generic boring advice, wait a generation or two before adopting any new tech.

The best phone I ever owned was an unlocked Sony Ericsson slide phone. I ended up having to toss it because AT&T discontinued the frequencies it was using. I still miss it.

It was tiny, had very long battery life, and did Bluetooth tethering, because it was unlocked. It also had a fantastic DAC, and sounded amazing on headphones. It was a perfect little marvel of engineering, and I wish that smartphones hadn't taken over quite so thoroughly.

After spending over a day with the S20 I'm completely sold on the 120Hz display. Every scroll and visual transition is just so much more.... satisfying. It's not an old phone < new phone either. It defaults at 60 and I had used it for a few hours before realizing I had to change a display setting.

Prederick wrote:

Upgraded from a Pixel 2 to a Pixel 4 today. I am pleased without being particularly impressed in any way. Getting rid of the fingerprint scanner was..... a decision.

I did the same and missed the fingerprint scanner. However, I've generally found the face unlock to work well. However, I'm assuming this is a bit of security hazard?

Trashie wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Upgraded from a Pixel 2 to a Pixel 4 today. I am pleased without being particularly impressed in any way. Getting rid of the fingerprint scanner was..... a decision.

I did the same and missed the fingerprint scanner. However, I've generally found the face unlock to work well. However, I'm assuming this is a bit of security hazard?

I don't think it is any more or less of a security hazard then fingerprints.

I don't know where the Android games thread went but I just saw Castlevania: Symphony of the Night released this week. $3. Controller support. Might have to get it.

Stele wrote:

I don't know where the Android games thread went but I just saw Castlevania: Symphony of the Night released this week. $3. Controller support. Might have to get it.

My friend just bought it and said it was pretty poor with frame rate and interface issues. Sounded like they just grabbed a ROM, used an emulator, and added touchscreen / bluetooth controls. I think he has a Pixel 2.

The article I saw suggested they used the 2007 PSP version.

And the main complaint I saw in reviews was the buttons not being mappable.

Google voicemail question:

I upgraded from the Galaxy S10 to the S20 and use the Samsung Switch app to transfer everything over. Most stuff was seamless however my google voicemail is now acting strange.

Before - Declined call to my main # would transfer to my google voicemail.

Now - Declined call on my main # now immediately starts ringing my phone again on google voice and I have to let it ring out or decline again before it goes to voicemail.

Any suggestions so I don't have to decline it twice?

I want to take a screenshot from a video, how do I do that on my phone? Some guy was breaking into my neighbors bike. I wasn't able to upload the video so I thought I would just take a screenshot from the video but none of the video players on my phone can do that.

For now I'm just going to send the video to my pc. Do it from there and send the picture back to my phone so I can upload it.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

I want to take a screenshot from a video, how do I do that on my phone? Some guy was breaking into my neighbors bike. I wasn't able to upload the video so I thought I would just take a screenshot from the video but none of the video players on my phone can do that.

For now I'm just going to send the video to my pc. Do it from there and send the picture back to my phone so I can upload it.

Depends on the phone and your version of Android, but there were tons of answers to this when I searched on Google. It's definitely doable using either your phone's screenshot feature (after pausing the video), or a screenshot feature in your video player app.

Yeah default screenshot is power+volume down buttons at the same time.

Thanks!

Welp, I dropped my ROG Phone 2 onto my big toe and it broke the screen. Not just cracked the glass but actually broke the display.

I kind of regretted buying that phone but I didn't want it to end like this.

IMAGE(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/CleanBigGlobefish-size_restricted.gif)

is your foot ok?

Toes of steel

I got an LG V60 ThinQ 5G™ because it was practically free and it came with the dual screen case. I thought the dual screen would be a bit gimmicky but it's actually really useful. Would recommend so far.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

I got an LG V60 ThinQ 5G™ because it was practically free and it came with the dual screen case. I thought the dual screen would be a bit gimmicky but it's actually really useful. Would recommend so far.

I've been pondering this one, as I use split-screen on my S20 frequently. Sadly it is not even close to free on Verizon.