Not formally banned but Halo TV show moment

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Home of the sharpest wake-up call on the planet!

I hope your day improves sir

my friend was actually told by her doctor to eat less rice. Just wanted to share!

Honestly I’d disagree. Past the iPhone 4S, my iPhone 8 was fine through it’s life before being replaced with a 13 mini a year or two ago when it suffered a naked gravitational incident at my hands. My parent’s generally had hand-me-downs or used models and dad’s 6s is still kicking and performing alright and even got a security patch a month ago.

They had that battery snafu which I will absolutely fault their lack of transparency for (good ol’ hide-the-workings-from-customers Apple) but I did encounter the issue it sought to trade performance for preventing in the past. (a worn battery causing random reboots on my 6s)

Now my BlackBerry Priv? I miss that phone but I did not miss it’s combination of slowing down with age plus updates running out at 6.0.1. Worst of both worlds but I miss sliders and Blackberry’s additions. (not the size though)

Similar in age (2015 models) but I doubt dad would be as tolerant of how it performed even a few years ago.

Google removed “Ok Google with the screen off” (made the toggle disappear, replaced with the option to allow its use in apps) on my Moto Z Play via Play Services updates and later advertised it as a Pixel-exclusive feature. (this was when the Pixel 1 was new)

Their support threads were ended curtly with statements of the phone not supporting the feature which I guess was technically true now that they changed it. (but no, the hardware always supported hotwords)

Never got that feature back and I bailed. For the ups and downs, I’m glad Apple doesn’t do that, instead omitting or handicapping new features for older devices. Of course not the best but yeesh, at least I don’t have to worry about “Hey Siri” being pulled to promote the iPhone 20 yet…

I got you, the caveat is that a DIY battery replacement is going to be easier than say a Pixel 6 (no main board removal necessary.) and will still work.

Yes, their software locking of features (like TrueTone) and less availability of original parts is reprehensible, (luckily those are less critical functions for now but they wont stop there.) I won’t get battery health metrics but it’s about the tradeoffs you want. (See: Pixel Watches outright being considered unrepairable by Google. I’m not sure how easy it would to secure nearby battery service on a Pixel - but at least it’s available on iFixit for DIY…)

Yep, I’ve done plenty of custom ROMs, used most mobile OSes out there, etc. but I’m not joking when I say I don’t want to deal with SafetyNet, figuring out what works with/without Play Services and generally getting in bed with Google hardware (but that last bit isn’t privacy oriented.) And no way do I have the time to tell mom how to install Graphene and support it.

Apple’s on-hardware processing for some things is a plus as well. Yes I know it’s their current business plan and can change but they make money on hardware and services, not knowing things.

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

I own an iPhone since it fits my use case with a retail presence, (more) available repair, longer (if murkier how much exactly) software support, customer support and local backup option. (iTunes)

Out of the box it’s a superior privacy experience to a Pixel but if you’re someone who wants to tinker, there’s less potential. Personally, I don’t want to have to “work” on my phone these days and Google’s engineering snafus haven’t been reassuring. (Google Drive “fix” then sticking head in sand when problems persist, Android 14 bricking…)

and my most personal reason is that they made my Moto Z Play materially worse by removing the OK Google with screen off feature to push the then-new Pixel and pretended it never was supported.

Edit: Yes, obviously an unpopular opinion but really think about what you want. Buy used to be more environmentally minded, do you want to tinker with your phone? Fairphone is neat, but tradeoffs are all over the place.

We don’t know any details. Google is trumpeting a success and indicating a willingness to assist but it doesn’t really tell us much of what it will look like. Apple is committing to RCS, the industry standard as it is (and I assume will be as I hope it breathes new life into the standard…) and not Google’s current RCS + proprietary bits implementation.

When MS created a Windows Phone YouTube app, Google blocked it with requirements that were either arbitrary (it needs to be HTML5 for example despite iOS and Android apps being native) or impossible to meet. (requiring specific access that Google would not provide)

So while Google framed it as “Microsoft just needs to do X, Y, Z and it’ll be all good!” - sounds good but it intentionally made said requirements impractical or impossible to complete.

Since Google’s been conflating their RCS implementation with RCS the standard, I think it’ll be a funny (if unfortunate) monkey’s-paw result if Apple’s adopts RCS completely as the backup to iMessage but continued carrier and Google implementation fumbling results in no change and the iPhone having to resort to SMS/MMS anyway.

(see: a while back when AT&T’s RCS could only be used between a couple AT&T Samsung phones - but I do hope it’s different this time, I got a group chat I rather take off Instagram.)

It was the next, more feature-rich SMS/MMS. It floundered with carriers, Google flip-flopped several times on messaging and today, it has two forms. Google’s RCS, but I’d liken it more to Google iMessage. And RCS the standard, which Google’s implementation is based on and Apple will be adopting. I am hoping that this is a kick in the butt that everyone needs to actually get on the same page for an SMS successor.

I don’t think Apple will need (or want) to do anything “malicious” since Apple is implementing RCS the standard which between the carriers and Google mismanaging and fragmenting messaging for years - see: X carrier phones can only send RCS messages to X carrier phones, Google’s implementation is not the RCS standard and is partially proprietary - it’ll take a while to get S.S. RCS, The Standard steered right.

I hope Apple’s involvement is ironically a kick in the butt to get everyone on the same page and get a standard rather than the current “Google iMessage” solution.

Edit: Typo

Oh that’d be nice but since no more SMS in Signal I can’t see it going back in (unless they reversed course?)

When you say “couch” my first thought is a recent-ish Celeron or Pentium Silver fanless laptop. Performance akin to a Core 2 Duo but no fan to get blocked sitting on the couch. Like the Latitude 3210(?)

Laptops that appeal to me are often bottom breathers so it’s one thing I miss from my old MB Air.

[cries in seeing how people treat ROM maintainers]

Nice. I liked my T470 a lot except yours is reaching heights mine only dreamed of! (It’s a computer for a younger cousin now)

They were beta testing them, EZ

Neat! Is that in AOSP, Google Messages, one of the OEMs, just an option in whatever third-party app you use?

I’m wondering if breaking major app updates outside of OS updates then means new features are less visible.

I’ve been firmly in iPhone-land quite a while and dabbled only a bit since my phone-switching days so my current perspective will be possibly dated and definitely from someone on the outside, casually following what’s new in Android but I did have a great time bouncing between platforms back in the day. (RIP webOS, BB10 and Windows Phone)

I had a Moto Z Play back in the day (that battery life but like that and the Priv it replaced, a bit big for my taste) and I ditched it when a then-critical feature to me: “Ok Google with Screen Off” was removed around the time Google Assistant and the Pixel 1 was rolling out. It was a Play Services and/or Assistant/Google Now update that removed the option from settings, I uninstalled them to keep it temporarily and when I looked it up, all I could find was a curt official “the feature is not supported” response on some support board. I knew the Snagdragon-whatever chipset it had supported it, and I was using it just fine in the past - it felt like gaslighting, I saw people throwing around the “your battery life would suffer” excuse or that it was never supported despite it being the time when chipset support for hotwords when sleeping like Hey Cortana, Hey Siri were a notable feature and the Z Play had it.

Imagine my reaction when I see that feature being advertised as a Pixel exclusive(? At least it was advertised as a Pixel feature) so that was it.

in hindsight, Google’s shenanigans to promote their own in-house projects over Android as a whole seems pretty in-character now. Even as iOS features aren’t as big like “ooo iOS’s facsimile of multitasking!” there’s still the “that’s neat” or small QoL moments coming out like auto-deleting 2FA texts when they’re used. And I just don’t seem to see any of that in recent releases. I saw “AI color themes!” and a new time layout? and I’m not shortchanging the features already there like holding volume down to mute, but it just feels like they’ve decided base Android is good enough and slowed down or stopped in favor of figuring out whatever exclusive Pixel features and what to keep from the non-Pros.

But with the move of so many things to Play Services, are features still coming out that way outside of the usual point release?