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Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

theverge.com

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Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#71
post #44
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

man. you're in the audio industry. most people are not. I'm talking the VAST majority of people. So they should cater to you? I think it is not unreasonable to expect the professional to have whatever equipment they need - there are aux adapters for USB C and lightning. They are small. They are inexpensive.

Everybody with a pair of wired headphones would appreciate a standard jack, too.

I agree the fact that a huge majority of headphones are still sold with the standard head phone jack - means the move is too early. Last release they even mentioned the head phone jack as a feature (and it was)..

I'll be sticking with my pixel xl

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#72
post #44
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

man. you're in the audio industry. most people are not. I'm talking the VAST majority of people. So they should cater to you? I think it is not unreasonable to expect the professional to have whatever equipment they need - there are aux adapters for USB C and lightning. They are small. They are inexpensive.

Everybody with a pair of wired headphones would appreciate a standard jack, too.

Then don't buy this phone. Headphones will soon all be either wireless or use USB C or lighting anyway. And if there are headphones that do not, use an adapter.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#73
post #24
post #3

As an audio engineer, the headphone jack removal trend is an absolute travesty in an industry that utilizes AUX IN audio capabilities night after night. I'm often using iPods or other local-music devices to pump sound into concert venues between acts. Taking away 1/8" audio standards in favor of USB-C or Lightning non-standardized ports causes chaos when needing to fill in music in a pinch. In my industry, I simply c…

man. you're in the audio industry. most people are not. I'm talking the VAST majority of people. So they should cater to you? I think it is not unreasonable to expect the professional to have whatever equipment they need - there are aux adapters for USB C and lightning. They are small. They are inexpensive.

Hi, member of the vast majority of people here. I don't want to have to carry a dongle.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think (good implementations of) wireless headphones are the way of the future. What did they gain by removing floppy disk drives from laptops? Well, nothing per se, but it allowed them to make smaller laptops. Removing the jack will allow them to make phones thinner - if not now, in future iterations. And the thing with keeping features around is that it's not just a question of that one feature. It's cumulative ov…

I mostly use my headphone jack to connect to stereo systems at home and in the car, so wireless headphones don't really help (nevermind how much more expensive they are and issues with sound).

I understand that's the case now - I did say "the way of the future". I believe wireless will become the standard everywhere (for everyday use, at least).

Any transition like that is going to be awkward at first. If people tried to wait for perfect conditions, progress would never be made.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#75
post #70

Edit up top: The identification is done on-device. The Verge article didn't mention this. > And this year’s Pixel will take advantage of the phone’s always-on microphones to listen for music (not just the phrase “OK Google”) and display what you’re listening to on the screen, even if it’s something on the radio. This sounds creepy. So now when excessive microphone data is seen to be going out to the cloud, they can j…

Except it doesn't send any data to the cloud. They mentioned that explicitly. There's an on-phone database of songs that it is matching against.

> They mentioned that explicitly

Okay? The submitted article certainly didn't mention that.

The Anadtech live blog does indeed state "01:05PM EDT - On device machine learning. Local music identificat (sic)"

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#76

The only reason to remove the headphone jack is to sell more dongles and wireless headphones. That's it. Consumers are not asking for it for the aesthetics. It doesn't make the phone much thinner. It doesn't make the phone easier to manufacture.

After finding cheap Bluetooth headsets on Amazon last about as long as a pair of earbuds, and have no cord, I don't see a problem. I'm very rough on physical devices, and will go through 4-6 pair of earbuds a year. Because these do not physically connect to the device, they take an order of magnitude less wear, and thus last longer.

The Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile doesn't have a standard for loseless audio, which means that you end up crappilly re-encoding the audio to send it to the headphones. The reference codec (SBC) is particularly crappy. Shipping MP3 or AAC over Bluetooth is not mandatory and may or may not work depending on the sender and receiver.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#77
post #40
post #3

As an audio engineer, the headphone jack removal trend is an absolute travesty in an industry that utilizes AUX IN audio capabilities night after night. I'm often using iPods or other local-music devices to pump sound into concert venues between acts. Taking away 1/8" audio standards in favor of USB-C or Lightning non-standardized ports causes chaos when needing to fill in music in a pinch. In my industry, I simply c…

Has anyone ever actually been bothered by having an audio jack? Having to plug in an adapter is not futuristic, its annoying.

Well, for some reason the ports on my phones would always kind of stop working at some point unless I held the headphone jack in at just the right angle. It wasn't the headphones because they would work fine on other devices.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#78
post #24
post #3

As an audio engineer, the headphone jack removal trend is an absolute travesty in an industry that utilizes AUX IN audio capabilities night after night. I'm often using iPods or other local-music devices to pump sound into concert venues between acts. Taking away 1/8" audio standards in favor of USB-C or Lightning non-standardized ports causes chaos when needing to fill in music in a pinch. In my industry, I simply c…

man. you're in the audio industry. most people are not. I'm talking the VAST majority of people. So they should cater to you? I think it is not unreasonable to expect the professional to have whatever equipment they need - there are aux adapters for USB C and lightning. They are small. They are inexpensive.

This was an unnecessary change no matter how you slice it. Just look at the other options: bluetooth or an adapter. With bluetooth you have to pair it and remember to charge the headphones. With an adapter you have to remember to bring it everywhere if you want to listen to a podcast or music or audio book. They say they're making a simple device but they're making my life more complicated. This is one of the few times where I'll get upset over such a simple change, especially since I was planning to buy a Pixel 2 until they announced this.

I'm not an audio professional and I think there's far more like me that you can't ignore.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#79

No wireless charging?

Wireless charging can't provide enough amps to actually charge newer Google devices. Nexus phones had them through the 5/7, but lost them with the 5x/6p. My Nexus 5 wall charger can't even push enough amps to charge my Nexus 5x. Edit: Does the new iPhone use the same wireless chargers as older phones? Can you use it with those Ikea lamps with wireless charging? Or does it use a different/less lossy transmission metho…

The new iPhones would like to file a disagreement with you.

Sure, it's slower than a quick charger, but in a lot of cases you don't need a quick charge.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#80
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't bring myself to buy a Samsung device. The bloatware is cringy as fuck. Maaaybe if it was unlocked right away and someone on XDA put together a Google only rom but short of that I'll never willingly buy a Samsung device.

For sure, Samsung's desperate attempt to fork off users is annoying. From Bixby to their own little app store, to duplicate versions of all of the basics like the clock and the calculator. But overall my experience has been extremely positive. And it's only fair to note that what we know as the pure Android was Google essentially sweeping in all of the cool things from Samsung, HTC and others.

I don't agree with that assessment. I've been using Android since 1.0.

The default experience is simply just that. No frills. No skins. Just Google apps. What exactly did they pull from HTC or Samsung that is now in the Gapps package?

Android comes without Google apps as well. Gapps package installs Gmail, Maps, etc but not much in the way of frills.

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