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One week with the Google Pixel

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Re: One week with the Google Pixel

#51

Not many negatives. Is it really that great of a phone, or is this really a sales pitch?

The Google Nexus & Pixel line have been the best Android phones imo so its not that surprising.

However, the invasiveness of the Pixel changes for "Deep Google Integration" in #3 is likely as much a pro as a con.

Re: One week with the Google Pixel

#52

I switched from an iPhone 6+ to the Google Pixel. I've had two problems, but overall love the phone. 1.) The phone is extremely slippery. I don't agree with the author on this one. My old iPhone was way easier to grip, and the iPhone 7 is even better. I bought a case which fixed this issue. 2.) I think this is pretty important. Android apps are second class citizens. A lot of applications don't work properly with And…

I think your second point may have more to to do with the diversity of hardware that Android runs on than the developers simply putting less effort into it. Android runs on so many different devices. It is more difficult to develop and Android app that feels totally polished on every device

I wish developers would explicitly say what devices they test on. There's no reason an app shouldn't be totally polished on at least one device.

Re: One week with the Google Pixel

#53
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You absolutely can only have 4-8 apps on your iPhones home screen. You can move them all off to another page. You could move them to the fourth or fifth or whatever page if you don't want them on the second page.

Good to know. I'm obviously a bit out of date on my iOS UI knowledge. Will experiment with this now. After playing with the home screen on iOS for a minute I remember what was annoying. I can control how many apps appear on the home screen, but they always float up and to the left. If I want to use my phone one-handed most of the time, it's really critical that I be able to keep two rows of apps at the bottom of the…

yeh, I wish it defaulted to the opposite. I want the icons to start in the bottom-right corner since that's where my thumb is.

Re: One week with the Google Pixel

#54

I switched from an iPhone 6+ to the Google Pixel. I've had two problems, but overall love the phone. 1.) The phone is extremely slippery. I don't agree with the author on this one. My old iPhone was way easier to grip, and the iPhone 7 is even better. I bought a case which fixed this issue. 2.) I think this is pretty important. Android apps are second class citizens. A lot of applications don't work properly with And…

I agree it's slippery. I never dropped my Nexus 5 over the last 3 years. Pixel's been on the floor at least 3 times and once it just slid out of my pocket on a reclining cinema seat. It looks like I'll be getting a rubbery cover soon.

Re: One week with the Google Pixel

#55
post #48

"The Pixel needs charging once a day, which is a little bit of a disappointment, but it charges really quickly." I'm not sure I understand this negative. I'd think any problems caused by this would be easily remedied by just charging your phone while you're sleeping, when you can't use it anyway. Or is he saying that it needs to be charged once a day, even if you charge it overnight?

If you don't always sleep in the same place it means lugging a charger.

It means you can't go to bed drunk and neccessarily expect your alarm to go off in the morning.

It really just means that any time your life gets out of routine, your phone is probably going to die.

Re: One week with the Google Pixel

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and this has me worried. You are among the few (yes yes even here on HN). And google doesn't make money with you. So who cares?

He is not one of the few. People have pushed this "You are paranoid, no one is out to get you" narrative since the 90s. Everyone has something to hide, even if its just their sex life or beliefs that aren't politically favored that might affect your employment.

    
And yet not one single instance of Google misusing their collected advertising info exists. All of the dumping on Google Services has, to the day I write this, proven to be absolute FUD without a single concrete thing to point at.

Re: One week with the Google Pixel

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example having Facebook Messenger handle your SMS messages. Really? You want to voluntarily give all that info to a company as user hostile as Facebook? The operating system shouldn't be paternalistically responsible for preventing this kind of preference. Some people do want to voluntarily give this information to FB in exchange for a simplified or more integrated messaging experience. I don't happen to be one…

Recently I cleaned completely my home screen (iPhone). In the dock I keep Phone, a folder with Safari and Mail, a folder with what I used to have in my home screen (Calendar, todo, clock... 7-8 things) and the "social" apps folder (Facebook, Whatsapp, iMessage, etc). The rest, I have it in a secondary screen, neatly ordered by folder. And anyway, when I need to open almost anything that is not in the dock, I just sea…

I did that on Android too. I hate the iPhone's "YOU MUST LOOK AT ALL YOUR ICONS" mandate, because a quick swipe down brings up a search that's much more efficient than looking at things.

Re: One week with the Google Pixel

#58

I've been wondering if I was missing out on the iPhone's 3D touch feature, for interacting with photos, messages, etc. The author didn't mention missing it, so I guess I'm not.

When it was first introduced, I used it very rarely.

With iOS 10, I've started using it frequently, many times per day.

So the answer, at least for me, has changed dramatically very recently. If I were already considering a move away from iOS, I would never have started using the new iOS 10 3D touch stuff to begin with, and therefore wouldn't know what I was missing.

Re: One week with the Google Pixel

#59
post #48

"The Pixel needs charging once a day, which is a little bit of a disappointment, but it charges really quickly." I'm not sure I understand this negative. I'd think any problems caused by this would be easily remedied by just charging your phone while you're sleeping, when you can't use it anyway. Or is he saying that it needs to be charged once a day, even if you charge it overnight?

> this would be easily remedied by just charging your phone while you're sleeping

This goes well and according to plan until you go to bed really tired one day and forget to put your phone to charge. And then it happens again a week later, and then again...

(This might be related to using your phone in bed)

Re: One week with the Google Pixel

#60
post #48

"The Pixel needs charging once a day, which is a little bit of a disappointment, but it charges really quickly." I'm not sure I understand this negative. I'd think any problems caused by this would be easily remedied by just charging your phone while you're sleeping, when you can't use it anyway. Or is he saying that it needs to be charged once a day, even if you charge it overnight?

It would be nice to have a phone that could survive a few days without charging. For example if you go camping for the weekend you can use your phone to take photos without worrying about battery.
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