Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#231

Post by BinaryIdiot » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:25 PM UTC

jamesrcole wrote: post #42

mcjiggerlog wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many customers they will lose because of this decision? What I don't actually understand is what exactly is gained by its removal? It doesn't seem to be a limiting factor in either thinness or waterproofing, which are the only two I can think of. I know I for one will never buy a phone with no headphone jack.

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…

> Removing the jack will allow them to make phones thinner - if not now, in future iterations.

People keep saying this but the circuitry and the depth was very small. There was even that guy from China who hacked a working 3.5mm jack into the iPhone 7 without changing its shape AT ALL yet Apple cited that they had to remove it to fit in more stuff.

If this isn't something that's useful to remove now, they should wait until it IS useful. It's all very frustrating. I now have my non-techie family asking me what to do with their phone that doesn't have a headphone jack or they're asking for support for their bluetooth headphones which MOST of them still completely SUCK (especially for the average user).

I mean I ultimately agree with you but I think we're still years away.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#232

Post by kazinator » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:26 PM UTC

zeveb wrote: post #228

jamesrcole wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The floppy disk stopped being good at moving files between computers and making backups because single files of popular types regularly exceeded its capacity at the time it stopped being a standard feature. Modems and CD drives had fallen into disuse in favor of alternatives by the time they started getting left out. There were still people who had stuff on floppies who wanted floppy drives. There was a big fuss wh…

> Many people find headphone cables a big pain in the ass. But they don't also find having to charge headphones, and eventually to throw them out and purchase new ones, to be 'a big pain in the ass'? > At least part of that is that wireless headphones tend to be expensive and many of them aren't the best at pairing and staying connected. Those things aren't inherent to wireless technology and will change over time. I…

The complexity in wireless such as Bluetooth is strictly because it's a digital, packed-switched network driven by a fairly complicated software stack.

Basically, chaos originates from the involvement of computer science.

Cordless home phones and "900 Mhz" wireless headphones to use around the house are dead friggin' simple and reliable.

(Not to mention insecure: another story).

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#233

Post by cookiecaper » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:26 PM UTC

JosephLark wrote: post #65

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…

Lots of devices already do this. My Echo occasionally misinterprets its wakeword and broadcasts up little 4-second clips of whatever is going on at the time it decides to do that. If you're worried about so-called "accidental" identification that allows them to activate listeners and receive the sound data from the room, that's already a pervasive threat.

Reminder that US intel exploited a bug (or a "bug") in Samsung Smart TVs that allowed them to surreptitiously activate the built-in microphones and stream the room's sound on-demand, obviously with no notification to the user. [0]

That gets me curious, did anyone try running that malware and see which servers it transmitted up to? Would be interesting to go through logs and see, retroactively, who this was used on in the wild. Would be even _more_ interesting if it proxied through a tunnel at a cooperative BigCo...

[0] https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/cms/page_12353643.html

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#234

Post by sorenjan » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:26 PM UTC

syntaxing wrote: post #106

I really wish they would reintroduce the Nexus series. The money felt worth it for the phone. Not sure if I can say the same for the Pixel series.

Plus Nexus was available to buy. I've had several Nexus phones, but Google doesn't want to sell Pixel phones in my country.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#235

Post by MBCook » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:27 PM UTC

cookiecaper wrote: post #220

mullingitover wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't fathom why the place where the device was purchased would matter if it's a Google phone. Apple manages to support iPhones whether you purchase them from an Apple store or in a back alley for bitcoins.

Apple is the manufacturer that is honoring the manufacturer's warranty (and/or additional warranty options). Google is not the manufacturer of the Nexus 5X/6P, that's Huawei. So if you didn't buy from them, they send you to the manufacturer, like most retailers would after the initial return window, even if you did buy it from them. I agree that it's bad for Google's image to operate that way, stick their name on a p…

If the phone is Google branded, it’s Google’s problem.

If it was advertised as a Huawei 6p that would be different.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#236

Post by sly010 » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:27 PM UTC

mullingitover wrote: post #170

I witnessed my girlfriend's Nexus 6p support experience with Google and it was not pretty. I would never buy a Google phone after that. The phone, just barely out of warranty, goes into a bootloop and becomes a paperweight. Google helpfully shrugs the problem off on Huawei, and Huawei will of course not support the product since it's out of warranty. There is no repair option. I tried Android early on, had similarly…

I guess experiences vary. Both times I broke my google phone they replaced it. We had some issue with setting up Project Fi, but again they ended up replacing it for free. I find that chatting works best with google support.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#237

Post by seaghost » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:28 PM UTC

There is no privacy with those devices.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#238

Post by niuzeta » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:29 PM UTC

> Though there is some bad news this year: the headphone jack is gone.

Expected, but it still stings. I guess I'll look elsewhere for my replacement for trusty Nexus 5X. Speaking of which, how's Pixel?

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#239

Post by matwood » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:29 PM UTC

lopespm wrote: post #45

Honest question: for those of you who own a mobile device without a headphone jack, do you find it to be an encuberment? Personally I still find it a bit hostile to not have the jack available, since often times I find myself charging the phone and using the headphones (when watching videos for example), so having an adapter dongle for such a frequent task seems counterintuitive to me. I believe that if a device is c…

> for those of you who own a mobile device without a headphone jack, do you find it to be an encuberment?

Never notice it. I have 2 adapters, 1 in my car and 1 in my bag. I can't remember the last time I needed the one from my bag. The 1 in the car stays permanently attached to the car headphone jack.

Any portable headphones I use are bluetooth and were bluetooth before the iPhone removed the jack.

At home, I stream over BT/wifi to speakers/devices.

Sitting at my computer I stream music from my computer. If I were to stream to wired headphones from my phone all the time I would just buy another $7 adapter and leave it attached to the headphones.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#240

Post by gxs » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:29 PM UTC

AcerbicZero wrote: post #43

I picked up the Pixel on release, but I've been disappointed by the quality of the product overall. The screen scratches easily , battery life is mediocre, and the changes to android recently have not been positive. I've had the device replaced once by Google, which was a painless process, but the new one scratches just as easily as the old, and loves to reboot on occasion. Interestly enough, I started a new job righ…

I recently switched from Android phones to an iPhone in July of this year.

This after having used android since the G1 (first android phone).

I think your sentiments are the most fair and realistic I've come across in a while (FYI for others reading).

The gap isn't as big as it used to be software wise, but the hardware is still better by a big margin. iOS has also been a little more stable, less app crashes, random reboots, etc.

The only thing I'd add is that the apple stores have been surprisingly helpful and have added more to the experience than I would have thought. Go in, try everything, get brought up to speed real quick by friendly staff, and they seem to always be conveniently located (for me at least).

All in all the experience has been better and I haven't missed Android's famous flexibility.