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Pixel 8 Pro

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Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#801

Post by rdl »

kimbernator wrote: post #178

It's starting to feel silly, having a yearly release cycle for smartphones. So much of this product page is focused on new software functions that may have some vague relationship with the slightly upgraded hardware, but that could mostly be released to existing phones. Every new iPhone, Pixel, or Samsung phone basically claims the camera is marginally better and hey, look at these software features that have very li…

New cars come out every year, with minor updates, and big updates every 3-10 years ("generation"). I am still pretty happy driving a 2006 car. Maybe phones move toward that, but I like incremental improvement, and I'd be annoyed to buy a phone today which is 4-5 years old if I'm also wanting to keep it for 3-5 years.

Enterprise computers get refreshed every 3-6 years, usually (I'd probably do shorter for most laptops, longer for desktops). Monitors can do 5-10 years. Until they became active electronics, headphones/speakers/microphones which were decades old were fine.

Biggest boost on a lot of new mobile device refresh is getting a new 0-cycle battery and a clean OS install, and for a lot of people, "buy a new one" is the main opportunity for that kind of upgrade.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#802

Post by vel0city »

danielheath wrote: post #592
dmoy wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that cover e.g. flash degradation over time from just normal write cycles?

No, but given how stark the slowdown often is after an os update… I don’t think that’s what has happened

An OS update does a lot of writes though. Its downloading a several gig file, unpacking lots of tiny files, shuffling them all around etc. Its probably one of the most disk intensive things a phone will do.

And in fact installing the first big OS update was one of the key points on the Nexus 7 that showcased its incredibly fragile storage. So we've definitely seen this happen in the past specifically with OS updates being the straw that killed the camel's back in flash storage performance.

I've experienced it on devices before as well. Play around flashing different ROMs on Android, eventually each flash keeps getting a little slower and a little slower, and suddenly just copying files directly off USB gets incredibly slow and the device becomes nearly unusable. I've seen it happen on a few different devices.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#803

Post by vetinari »

pjmlp wrote: post #722
sanswork wrote: post #712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The editor did nothing more than notepad does today and the IDE at least back when I was using it was basically just a compiler, debugger with basic inspection window and stepping and a make system. It wasn't doing realtime formatting of your code, inspection for errors, referencing to other parts of code, autocompletion, syntax highlighting, etc.

Stuck in MS-DOS? As someone that used all their products from MS-DOS, through Windows 3.x days up to switching to Visual C++ 6.0, I clearly remeber code completion, syntax highlighting and macros, three features that Notepad isn't capable of. As easily proven, by reading the manuals available in Bitsavers.

Turbo Pascal 7 did syntax highlighting, as well as source-level debugging. That was on top of nice-to-have features like auto-indenting.

It was a DOS, Turbo Vision application.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#804

Post by chaostheory »

hyperhopper wrote: post #559
chaostheory wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The status quo is great. You have yearly releases that are stable and allow anyone to upgrade without fear of the new model coming out like with traditional video game consoles. No one is forcing you to buy anything you don’t want. Also, the OS and apps need to take advantage of new hardware, so it’s not a surprise if your seven year old phone becomes slower. If you don’t like the status quo then I would go with a no…

> No one is forcing you to buy anything you don’t want. Yes they are, by refusing to release security updates for older models. I don't want to buy a new phone, but likely will have to due to support ending so they can sell more high margin hardware.

The life cycle of Apple Phones for updates is 6 years. On Android, it’s about 2 - 6 years.

If you don’t like the terms, go with a Linux distro phone. There is choice now.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#805

Post by prmoustache »

scarface_74 wrote: post #791
prmoustache wrote: post #747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I have had company issued high end phones and apart from better camera quality[1] these devices weren't doing things significantly better than my personal 240$ smartphone. Also, generally people spend an awful lot of money on things out of vanity and social pressure, regardless of their needs and if it is a good decision. Look at new cars prices and how most vehicles purchases are usually overkill for e…

Yes I’m sure 60% of Americans care about “social pressure” enough to buy a different phone. Trust me, my 80 year old mother doesn’t care about what TikTok influencers think. Low end Android phones just plain suck when it comes to performance and battery life. Not to mention they rarely get operating system updates. If you did force me to buy an Android phone, it would be the Pixel.

> Trust me, my 80 year old mother doesn’t care about what TikTok influencers think.

nor does she care about operating system updates.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#806

Post by gehen88 »

Valakas_ wrote: post #742
eptcyka wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but my perfectly working Pixel 5 is going out of support before the end of the year, I expect the resale value to be 0.

Who the hell cares that one's phone is going out of support? This anal obsession with OS updates for some people is honestly appalling. If the phone doesn't get updated every micro second the sky is falling and the phone becomes a dangerous place. What are you doing on your phone that you need to be on top of OS security so badly? Browsing on the dark web? Going to sketchy sites? Have no password savers or 2nd factor…

I use my phone to access work stuff. That's a huge reason to need security updates.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#807

Post by vel0city »

apetresc wrote: post #792
bwooceli wrote: post #772

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After working wireless retail in the early '00s, I will always choose a phone with a high IP rating. Other scenarios I've seen - Phone pushed into sink without realizing while doing dishes and walking away for an hour long phone call, parked convertible with phone in the cupholder, boob sweat, working in a greenhouse going in and out of air conditioning, leaving on a picnic table overnight while camping, water bottle…

> Phone pushed into sink without realizing while doing dishes and walking away for an hour long phone call How did they talk on their phone for an hour without realizing their phone was underwater?

> in the early '00s

The customer was probably talking on their landline phone for the hour.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#808

Post by dghlsakjg »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #720
dghlsakjg wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on your use case. For me, the addition of satelite SOS introduced on iPhone 14 is a game changer. I do enough out of cell range activity that I carry a SPOT device. The ability for one more device (and pricy subscription) to be eaten by my phone is fantastic. For others it might be onboard ai capabilities. Each incremental hardware update to an iPhone tips the utility scales for someone, and is a completely i…

Yeah. Don't do that. This is not a replacement for a SPOT device. It's a backup. You might need to move around reportedly, point it very carefully to find a satellite, coverage isn't great, even minimal tree cover is a problem, etc. Plenty of cases where a SPOT device would be a life saver and where this would not. I too would like to ditch mine. But I'd rather be alive in a real emergency than die because I broke my…

My SPOT has a pretty significant failure rate at getting tracking messages out (~20% of my tracking dots are unsuccessful), and has no feedback mechanism to indicate whether it was successfully sent. Unless emergency messages are sent using a different technique than tracking messages I’m not sure I trust the spot much either.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#809

Post by ryanjshaw »

dotancohen wrote: post #744
ryanjshaw wrote: post #690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely curious - how did your 6-8 year old earn an income that didn't come from his parents?

He walks smaller dogs and sells drinks that he makes at the football field near the house. The neighbour lets him pick lemons to sweeten the drinks. He worked for two years to buy the absolute least expensive phone available. I did buy him a case as a gift for achieving his goal, though: $3 on Aliexpress. I should mention that he also managed to buy two goldfish during this time - also with his own money. So he learn…

Really cool!

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#810

Post by janandonly »

kimbernator wrote: post #178

It's starting to feel silly, having a yearly release cycle for smartphones. So much of this product page is focused on new software functions that may have some vague relationship with the slightly upgraded hardware, but that could mostly be released to existing phones. Every new iPhone, Pixel, or Samsung phone basically claims the camera is marginally better and hey, look at these software features that have very li…

Nobody is stopping you from only buying a new phone once every 5 years.

Many (without much conscious thought maybe even) are doing this too.

Simply replace when needed. That’s all there is to it.

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