Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pixel Tablet

store.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 527 posts

Re: Pixel Tablet

#471

Post by freedomben »

kllrnohj wrote: post #456
prettyStandard wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a rule me and my family don't use devices that don't get software updates. As soon as they're not patching it the devices as good as dead to us. The most we will do with it is play video games on it. Even my very computer illiterate parents understand this well.

Seems extreme since app updates regularly still happen?

Agreed. The most important thing is the browser and those continue to get updates. If you use bluetooth or NFC, those can be considerations, but NFC is rare for a tablet. Especially if you just use it around the house, it seems extreme to me to cut it off from life.

> Even my very computer illiterate parents understand this well.

This strikes me as similar to the pro-God arguments that people sometimes make with, "even my 6 year old kid knows that God exists"

Re: Pixel Tablet

#472

Post by denysvitali »

kentiko wrote: post #364

Last time I bought a Google device was a Pixel C end of 2016 as present for my dad. It was supported up to Android 8, released in 2017, and then Google decided this device was obsolete and would never get the next Android release. I am done with Google hardware. I bought my dad an iPad Mini since, as a replacement, I sure it will be updated for much longer.

No need for Android, you can run any linux distro on that now: https://github.com/pixelc-linux/documentation

We did quite some work back then (:

Re: Pixel Tablet

#473

Post by scarface_74 »

freedomben wrote: post #468
scarface_74 wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original poster just said that some apps required the latest OS. iOS 16 supports all phones back to the iPhone 8/X released in 2017. > This is very different from iOS that once it stops receiving updates, you're pretty much screwed up. Apple just released a security patch for the iPhone 5s January of this year. It was released September 2013. It was the first 64 bit iPhone and the first that supported LTE. Is Goo…

> Is Google or any Android manufacturer doing security updates for a phone released in 2013? lol, goal posts moved. To demonstrate the absurdity of this logic, let's talk about how much better Linux is than Apple. Linux (various distributions, collectively referred to here as "linux" for convenience) still supports many systems that are 20+ years old! In fact, Linux is often used to give unsupported Apple devices a l…

How is this moving the goalposts? We are comparing phones. Unless you have a phone from 20 years ago running the latest version of Linux.

> Google is also much more serious about backward compatibility than Apple, and

How is Google “better” at backwards compatibility when they don’t support devices as long?

The iPhone 5s which was introduced in 2013 got a security update earlier this year. Is the same true for Android phones that are almost 10 years old?

The iPhone 8/X that was introduced in 2017 still is running the latest OS. Is that true for Android devices?

Seeing that Apple didn’t even create phones 20 years ago, and that you can’t even connect a phone older than the iPhone 5s to a modern network, I fail to see how that is relevant.

Or do you expect Apple to support the original iPhone that 128MB of RAM, 4GB/8GB of storage, 2G networking (which isn’t supported by carriers anymore) and a 320x480 screen?

Re: Pixel Tablet

#476

Post by freedomben »

Does anyone know if this supports USB-C to HDMI?

It saddens me to have to ask this on HN but there's no info I can find about this. After having OnePlus devices for years, I got very used to being able to plug in a USB-C to HDMI cable into the charging port and be able to use an external screen with no problems. After getting a Pixel 5a and my wife a Pixel 7, I discovered that Pixels do not support that (which surprised me greatly). Supposedly one can buy some expensive special hardware and install a 2/5 star rated app with bad privacy policy to give the feature, but that is quite unpalatable to me.

If this device has that feature, I would buy it because it's otherwise excellent. But plugging in to our van's HDMI port to play movies and such for kids on long road trips is a must-have feature for me.

Re: Pixel Tablet

#477

Post by freedomben »

culopatin wrote: post #420
chrysoprace wrote: post #156

As someone who generally likes the Pixel line of phones (not a fanboy; I just enjoy the stock+ android experience), I'm sceptical of the support on this tablet. My old Nexus tablet (I think it's the Nexus 7) is generally useless beyond basic offline usage because it doesn't get OS updates any more. Given the price, it's going to be a hard thing to justify at AUD$899 if it's going to be a security liability after 2028…

My Nexus 7 became unusable because of the storage issue. You must have a 2013. I did love it though. I got an iPad thinking I would chase that feeling but it’s too big and heavy. The display on the pixel 7 was just great at the time, the rubbery back was nice to play with while reading, it was light and fit in jeans pockets. I guess one could get a big phone and the size is almost there, but then you have to lug that…

Indeed, that was my combo too and it was damn near perfect.

People don't realize how awesome the Nexus 7 was. Lightweight and cheap, with pure Android. I badly miss those days of the Nexus line of products.

Re: Pixel Tablet

#478

Post by soared »

kentiko wrote: post #364

Last time I bought a Google device was a Pixel C end of 2016 as present for my dad. It was supported up to Android 8, released in 2017, and then Google decided this device was obsolete and would never get the next Android release. I am done with Google hardware. I bought my dad an iPad Mini since, as a replacement, I sure it will be updated for much longer.

It turns out the expected security support for android devices is only 3 years, so if you buy an older device it’s lifespan could be super short. Seems wild to me given apples support length is 5 years.

https://9to5google.com/2019/08/09/google-pixel-c-update/#:~:....

Re: Pixel Tablet

#479

Post by freedomben »

Gigachad wrote: post #163
hammyhavoc wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better than most Android tablets that never see any updates, security or otherwise, and ship with an old version of Android out of the box. Can you name a better one?

No, I can't name a single Android tablet worth buying. It makes no sense to buy one over an iPad, even if you have no other Apple products.

What about the OnePlus Pad? Been hearing great things about it

Re: Pixel Tablet

#480

Post by the__alchemist »

qup wrote: post #386
worik wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. This is the problem with the tablet duopoly I looked very hard a two years ago for a high end tablet that I could put my own OS on. All I could find was the one by Pine64, and it was not "high end" I am typing this on an eight year old laptop I bought second hand at the start of COVID lock downs. Running Linux, it works pretty damn well. Why can I not get a tablet like that?

I got a surface tablet. The one that just runs normal windows. I'm not a Windows user normally, but it's the best "tablet" OS by far IMO. You can get WSL, and honestly I would be surprised if you can't install Linux on it, but I haven't actually checked.

You can install Linux on a Surface, but there is no good writing software for Linux, but touch and pen support is finicky/complicated.
Post reply on HN