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Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

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501–510 of 615 posts

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I get it, but it's essentially Google wanting to have their cake (marketing to customers: "It's a Google phone! Pure Google all the way, baby!") and eat it, too (product support: "Uhhh, yeah, we uh, we don't make this thing, it's all Huawei, we're just a humble retailer."). I agree that it's absolutely bad for Google's image to operate this way, as you can see from the comments in this thread. People aren't mad at th…

> the OEMs Google paid to manufacture their devices

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think that's how it was. LG's Nexus devices were manufactured by LG for LG, etc. The "Google" part of a Nexus phone is the software and some collaboration in the design.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#502
post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I routinely switch my headset from my laptop to my phone and vice versa. Doing this with a jack is trivial. Doing this with a BlueTooth headset is very annoying and requires additional steps on both devices.

Anecdotally, my experience with Bluetooth headphones is that they’re easier. I don’t have to do anything more complicated than you do — if I turn on my Bluetooth headphones in range of my computer, they connect. If I turn them on in range of my iPhone or iPad, they connect. If any of them start playing sound, it comes out the headphones. No cable twiddling required.

And if they're currently connected to your phone and you want to connect to your computer?

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not very significant. Basically it stores some distances between peaks in each song's spectrogram which can then be further compressed. Even supporting a database of millions of songs would be possible.

Spotify has 30 million songs. Even if it takes up a small amount of space, it's basically a non-feature.

The index can be highly compressed, see for example

https://blog.afterthedeadline.com/2010/01/29/how-i-trie-to-m...

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#504
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…

I'm using an iPhone 7, it will be my last iPhone after 4 models. The lack of headphone jack sucks, the adapter breaks, none of the cheap adapters work - and the audio on good devices sucks.

The only real option is to carry a DAC around which is ridiculous.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Desktops and laptops have different constraints than phones. Bluetooth uses less power (from the device), makes waterproofing easier, and frees up space for battery. I personally would prefer having a headphone jack on the phone (even though I've never used mine), but I understand why they did what they did.

Bluetooth uses less power... than what? Than a headphone jack?

its up to the phone how much amplification there is on the analog output. the latest BT specification is pretty low power, but which is lowest will depend. in my own experience, it seems like i get longer battery when using the jack over the BT radio, but i have not tested this rigorously

https://www.quora.com/How-much-power-current-goes-through-an...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_level

https://www.turntablelab.com/pages/headphone-buying-guide-wh...

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#506
post #4
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…

I love my Pixel, but they just lost me as a customer for this reason. I'm not totally against removing the headphone jack, but it's not time yet -- the transition has been done poorly.

its always time to buy replacements for all those things in capitalism!

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an S8 (plus) and I'd love to upgrade to the Pixel 2. I am so tired of Samsung trying to replace every piece of functionality with their own. I had to go find Google's "Android messaging" app in the Play store - just their standard SMS app - to replace the Samsung stock one because it kept opening URLs in "Samsung Internet", their version of the browser. The Samsung keyboard is awful, and I can't seem to find a…

Have you tried and disliked the Google keyboard? That's what I used when I was on a GS6, and it was pretty good.

I did - I really like it, except that every once in a while, for reasons I can't pinpoint but I assume are random, it will only let me type by hitting letters individually (no swiping). I re-enabled it today, so hopefully if that was a bug in the app it's been fixed, but we'll see.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It annoys my wife. She can't use the earbuds that came with her phone to listen to anything on her iPad, b/c it only came with a dongle going the other direction (for connecting standard headphones to the iPhone). When we're in the car she can't charge & use the aux cable at the same time. Both of these could possibly be solved with 3rd party dongles, but it's silly to have to pay $20-30 extra for that.

I know that the headphones which came in the box work through the lightning port on my iPad. I think firmware support was added to all devices in iOS 10, maybe check if she's updated.

Good call, i'll look into that.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It annoys my wife. She can't use the earbuds that came with her phone to listen to anything on her iPad, b/c it only came with a dongle going the other direction (for connecting standard headphones to the iPhone). When we're in the car she can't charge & use the aux cable at the same time. Both of these could possibly be solved with 3rd party dongles, but it's silly to have to pay $20-30 extra for that.

I prefer solving the charge+car audio issue with a Bluetooth receiver which can be found for $25 on Amazon, my wife loves being able to play music in the car without snaking an AUX cable from the dash to the center console.

Not a bad idea.

Re: Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced

#510
post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems to make a big difference whether or not you buy it from Google. I bought my 6p from Google. I paid for the extended warranty . It went into a boot loop after 13 months and they still wanted me to pay the $75 fee for a refurb phone. Remember: I paid $89 in advance for a 2 year extended warranty. This is for a well known issue in their hardware, that iirc they are being taken to court for. I had purchased a…

I had no warranty and they gave me a replacement 6P for free despite being OUT of warranty. I heard others were given Pixel XLs. I guess mileage really can vary.

Yep, dropped my phone (totally my fault), got a Pixel XL for $89. Pretty OK, would buy the extended warranty again.
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