Google Nexus 5x and 6P • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Nexus 5x and 6P

#441

Post by btdollar » Wed, Sep 30, 2015, 3:24 AM UTC

neltnerb wrote: post #440

eropple wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Better screen? They're both bigger; > So that's one downgrade Two, and one critical. The Nexus 5 was absolutely the biggest phone I would consider, and even that was really too big. Making one phone a dinner plate and one phone a centimeter-larger dinner plate is atrocious. Apparently only Sony wants my money (and honestly the Z Compact series is still too big).

It drives me nuts as well that the two key features I think of when I think of a phone -- long battery life and HAND HELD (singular) -- seem to be incompatible with anything like stock android. The original Moto X was pretty close, but it just feels like we're going backwards now. I do not understand what market pressure is causing this.

It's me. I fucking love my iPhone 6s test device form factor and a bigger, 64-bit Nexus is exactly what I was hoping for.

Re: Google Nexus 5x and 6P

#442

Post by elyobo » Wed, Sep 30, 2015, 3:24 AM UTC

zuppy wrote: post #362

ris wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nobody's going to bother to recreate your fingerprint, when it's much easier to beat you with a wrench ( https://xkcd.com/538/ ) until they get access to your phone." I think this misses the point. Accessing a device using a "cloned finger" (not tremendously difficult) can be done without the target ever knowing it has happened. The wrench technique, less so.

Yes, but is it worth spending the required resources? If the answer is yes, than anyway the 4 digit pin isn't more secure (you can watch people type them and find out the code).

You can change your code. The fingerprint is a bit more difficult. That's my main issue with biometric security, revocation of compromised credentials (e.g. fingerprints) is difficult or impossible.

Re: Google Nexus 5x and 6P

#443

Post by moultano » Wed, Sep 30, 2015, 3:33 AM UTC

Mikeb85 wrote: post #392

moultano wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how it works. Here's the google research blog post about it. http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2014/10/hdr-low-light-and...

I know there's 2 ways to do HDR. Either way, there's been apps available for that for awhile. Taking multiple exposures with a camera with an electronic shutter (pretty much all smartphones) is still just a 'trick'. BTW, the Galaxy Note 3's stock camera app does HDR, I'm sure most phones already did a year ago...

I'm not sure what your definition of a "trick" is. The quality of the results varies greatly depending on the algorithm used, which is maybe why you don't have a good impression of it. This one aligns the exposures and detects motion which is not something you can easily do by hand. In practice, I find my nexus 5 with HDR+ often takes superior pictures to my consumer grade DLSR, so much so that it's hard to justify taking the DSLR on trips anymore.

For instance, compare these two pictures taken at the same spot with a nexus 5 and Canon EOS Rebel T2i. https://goo.gl/photos/8ZrXoEC283oJ3NmC9 The nexus 5 one is just way better. The conventional camera struggles to keep even the foreground and midground properly exposed. The nexus 5 gets everything from the foreground to the sky, exactly as I saw it.

Re: Google Nexus 5x and 6P

#444

Post by sounds » Wed, Sep 30, 2015, 3:38 AM UTC

detaro wrote: post #328

andrepd wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is smartphones are stagnating. Let's see: * CPU: Processor evolution is stagnating, and processors are so powerful that they can handle most typical workloads with ease. Efficiency is now the order of the day, not raw power. * Screen: Densities are so high it that not only does it become difficult to manufacture higher density panels, but it actually hurts the device by draining more energy and killing pe…

So they'll finally build affordable phones that have all the interesting features and not faster ones with a random subset of them? Sounds like good news, but somehow I doubt it...

This!

All the above are requirements, yes (CPU, Screen, RAM, Storage, Battery, Camera). I'd add one more requirement: manufacturers should be required to supply as a part of an extended warranty the latest release of Android. No more orphaning year-old phones.

Once that's squared away, then I imagine manufacturers could compete on features -- things that customers want. Here are some examples:

* Battery life. User-serviceable battery.

* Removable storage

* Wireless charging

* Multiple SIM slots (popular in Japan)

* FM Radio (popular in Japan)

As you can imagine, a phone with all the above would be pretty large, but it turns out customers like a large phone. Sadly, no such phone exists today.

Re: Google Nexus 5x and 6P

#445

Post by wstrange » Wed, Sep 30, 2015, 3:42 AM UTC

victorhooi wrote: post #426

rsync wrote: post #225

I am finally in the market for a new mobile phone - my trusty MOTO FONE (F3)[1] finally died after three years. One of my absolute no-compromise feature needs is removable media ... an SD card slot that can accept the new 128 GB cards. This is because my current music collection is 68 GB in size and carrying the entire collection is one of my use-cases. But ... I also want a non-crapware, pure android phone, and the…

Let me ask you a question - how long would it take you to listen to 68 GB or 128 GB of music? My hypothesis is, you don't actually need 68 GB of music around with you. In fact, it doesn't confer any meaningful advnatages. Using http://www.richardfarrar.com/song-capacity-calculator-for-mp... , I can see that 64 GB of music at 256 KBps is around 559 hours of music - I really doubt you'd listen to any meaningful portion…

Fully Agree.

Google Music makes it easy to pin music to the device for the occasional time when you are on a flight and have no wifi.

There is simply no need to cache more than 2-3 GB of music on the device.

Re: Google Nexus 5x and 6P

#446

Post by tomgg » Wed, Sep 30, 2015, 3:45 AM UTC

wstrange wrote: post #445

victorhooi wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me ask you a question - how long would it take you to listen to 68 GB or 128 GB of music? My hypothesis is, you don't actually need 68 GB of music around with you. In fact, it doesn't confer any meaningful advnatages. Using http://www.richardfarrar.com/song-capacity-calculator-for-mp... , I can see that 64 GB of music at 256 KBps is around 559 hours of music - I really doubt you'd listen to any meaningful portion…

Fully Agree. Google Music makes it easy to pin music to the device for the occasional time when you are on a flight and have no wifi. There is simply no need to cache more than 2-3 GB of music on the device.

What if you've resolved to only use free software? That means _Google Music_ is not an option.

Re: Google Nexus 5x and 6P

#447

Post by Raphael » Wed, Sep 30, 2015, 3:48 AM UTC

tedunangst wrote: post #92

> 518 pixels per inch To the moon! Considering it's a six inch phone, how close to my face am I going to be holding this thing? I wonder what's coming next. 240Hz refresh rates?

That's really necessary with pentile displays, which amounts to about 2/3 of an RGB subpixel scheme. 345 equivalent PPI isn't that crazy.

Re: Google Nexus 5x and 6P

#448

Post by nileshtrivedi » Wed, Sep 30, 2015, 4:04 AM UTC

branchan wrote: post #438

chrsstrm wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My worry is that this is a gateway drug to "Fingerprint protect all the things!" My bank emailed me the other day with an announcement that I could access my account through their app via my fingerprint. WTF? My text messages are one thing by now my money is protected by just my fingerprint? I took my bank to task because they allowed my username to be twice as long as the allowed characters in my password. Someone a…

The bottomline is that if someone can hack a server to steal your fingerprint, they can just as easily use the same method to steal your method so I don't really see the differen imho.

Except that you can't choose a different fingerprint for each app/site. Lose it once and all your accounts are compromised.

Re: Google Nexus 5x and 6P

#449

Post by voltagex_ » Wed, Sep 30, 2015, 4:05 AM UTC

tomgg wrote: post #446

wstrange wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fully Agree. Google Music makes it easy to pin music to the device for the occasional time when you are on a flight and have no wifi. There is simply no need to cache more than 2-3 GB of music on the device.

What if you've resolved to only use free software? That means _Google Music_ is not an option.

SyncThing is a good alternative in that case.

Re: Google Nexus 5x and 6P

#450

Post by nileshtrivedi » Wed, Sep 30, 2015, 4:08 AM UTC

elyobo wrote: post #442

zuppy wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but is it worth spending the required resources? If the answer is yes, than anyway the 4 digit pin isn't more secure (you can watch people type them and find out the code).

You can change your code. The fingerprint is a bit more difficult. That's my main issue with biometric security, revocation of compromised credentials (e.g. fingerprints) is difficult or impossible.

Not only that. With fingerprints, you are essentially using the same password everywhere. You just need to lose it once and all your accounts would be compromised.