If you own an older Pixel and want to enjoy the new software features, you can just side load the latest Android System Intelligence APK [0].
[0] https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/device-personalizat...
Pixel 8 Pro
811–820 of 885 posts
Re: Pixel 8 Pro
#812The depreciation between Pixels and iPhones is staggering. Trade-in in Germany on Google Store page: - Pixel 6 Pro 256gb ($999 on release) - 235€ - iPhone 13 Pro 256gb ($1099 on release) - 730€ While I am partial to Googles line of phones (had pretty much every Google phone since the nexus one), the loss of value is something I cannot really ignore any more when deciding to buy a phone.
What I don't get are these price tags. My last flagship phone was a Google Nexus 6P where the base model was $499. Amazing phone, too bad after 3 years it had a battery issue but the manufacturer gave me a new one. But the thing is: it was $499. That was the greatest thing about the Nexus lines - good hardware (maybe not the latest SOC) with regular updates and a good OS experience. I miss those phones. Google with t…
As the lifecycle most consumers have for their cellphones stretches out adding additional years, the manufacturers are pushing their high-end phones more heavily, and creating even higher-end phones.
Re: Pixel 8 Pro
#813Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Actually she does. Once she saw that an old computer running an old version of Windows was no longer going to get updates, she stopped using it. She would be just as cautious about a phone that didn’t get updates
Re: Pixel 8 Pro
#814Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use GrapheneOS, and I've donated to its development. To say that "None of the claims are true" and that they are "baseless" is incorrect. Louis Rossman was a supporter of the project until he and Daniel had a failing out in which Daniel behaved inappropriately [1], all over a Youtube comment. There's proof for that and other claims [2, 4, 5]. Daniel can be a talented developer, privacy advocate and asshole at the s…
I'm willing to believe Daniel is a bit of an asshole, totally. But I am thoroughly on his side when it comes to the CalyxOS and Techlore drama. However I wasn't aware of any of the Louis Rossman stuff
> But I am thoroughly on his side when it comes to the CalyxOS and Techlore drama.
Sure, that could be argued either way. To be honest, it's too complicated for me to really care about. I think GrapheneOS is a solid project, currently.
My biggest problem is that Daniel refuses to apologize or even acknowledge these issues. I try to judge people not by their mistakes, but by their responses to these mistakes.
My worry with GrapheneOS is that the same thing to Copperhead might happen to it. I don't know or care who was right/wrong in that situation. But the end result was that Daniel deleted the signing keys, so I am worried that if Daniel is pressured form either real or imaginary attacks, he might do the same to GrapheneOS.
I want the project to go on for as long as possible, and part of that requires honest reflection.
Re: Pixel 8 Pro
#815Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use GrapheneOS, and I've donated to its development. To say that "None of the claims are true" and that they are "baseless" is incorrect. Louis Rossman was a supporter of the project until he and Daniel had a failing out in which Daniel behaved inappropriately [1], all over a Youtube comment. There's proof for that and other claims [2, 4, 5]. Daniel can be a talented developer, privacy advocate and asshole at the s…
Think about all the products you purchase. Do you really think that in each case, the CEO of the company behind that product has a "pattern of behaviour" we approve of? [I really doubt it.] But here we are concerned about personality quirks of a guy developing a valuable free product.
> "pattern of behaviour" we approve of?
I think you are engaging in Whataboutism [1]. This does not make for a constructive discussion.
But lets take what you said in good faith.
I imagine most products I buy have a not so amazing CEO. That does not prevent me from criticizing one of the products I use most often. Furthermore, as the (former) lead developer, he had or has control of the signing keys, simply deleting (as he has done in the past) them would cause significant damage.
Re: Pixel 8 Pro
#816It'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…
The Apple adverts push the fact that the 15 is titanium. That's it. The ad I keep seeing doesn't even hint at why Titanium matters. No matter, the point is, evidently the technical aspects don't seem to matter.
Old trick. Regular Car Reviews 2013 Ford Fusion Titanium AWD: Regular Car Reviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIZdDi5V7M4
Re: Pixel 8 Pro
#817Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. I was convinced I need to move from an iPhone 14 to iPhone 15. My reasoning was better camera. I honestly was going to skip upgrading but the camera and some other minor features were enough for me to make the upgrade happen. I feel if these companies worked together to cut back on the waste of yearly release cycles, there’d be better environmental results. But every year we have a new feature because tech h…
They keep selling a better camera. Constantly. Every year. Yet, can you really look at your old photos and say "my God, those 2017 photos. Could you imagine taking such crappy photos with such a bad phone?" I doubt it. That hasn't been true in more than a decade even for challenging environments like in low light. They're selling you on a better camera each year because there's basically no useful way to measure its…
Well, when they added a wide lens camera to phones I think that significantly changed phone photography. In the Pixel 7 pro (and the 8 pro) they added a telephoto lens; this is another significant upgrade.
Personally, I have a proper camera, but I am not carrying it around with me at all times. My phone takes excellent pictures (I have a pixel 6) but I do feel the lack of zoom.
The quality of the main cameras hasn't really gone up in a few generations; but I do think there's been significant improvements in the photography department in phones in the last 5 years. Wide lens, macro photography, zoom lenses. These are genuine innovations.
It does make me a bit angry when software is kept locked into new models when older models are perfectly capable of running it though. But there's been hardware innovation for sure. Don't really see much of a reason to go from a Pixel 7 pro to a Pixel 8 pro, and probably not going to be the case for a few years. But who knows.
Re: Pixel 8 Pro
#818Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stop me if you're head this one before but I'm going to tune you into a neat trick. Use your other hand.
Yeah, no shit. I don't think that there's anyone who can't figure that out. The problem isn't "I can't figure out how to use my phone", it's that always having to use the phone with two hands is annoying as hell. Phones shine when you can use them one handed. They suck when you have to regularly use them two handed because they are so big.
I think a lot of phone UI stuff biases for the lower half of the screen already. UI elements for picking most frequently used apps are at the bottom, controls for ending calls etc are at the bottom, keyboards are at the botton, swiping up to change apps.
Re: Pixel 8 Pro
#819I wonder if the audio magic eraser feature will make it to older pixel phones. That and the best-shot one seemed very interesting. It also seems very arbitrarily limited to the newer ones, 7/7pro seem like they should be more than capable of driving these features. Is software limiting going to be the norm going forward for phones? Because, I don't think this is worth upgrading from last years phones from a hardware…
They've already been limiting some of the "AI" image editing features to newer pixels (but installing the same app package on older phones works just fine).
Is that confirmed? Do you have any further sources on that? I am not questioning, just interested in learning more. I had kinda assumed that the new chips had new instructions that supported these features. Kinda lame if they are literally just gating them to new phones.
Re: Pixel 8 Pro
#820Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's new cars each year, but hardly anyone is switching yearly, right?
Is it? New generations are not released every year. It takes 5-8 years to show something new. In the middle of it there is facelifting (sometimes smaller, sometimes bigger). But I wouldn't say that one, particular model of car have new version each year. There is no reason to release flagship phones each year.
I love it when people say "there's no reason to do x" where x is a thing that the world's biggest companies spend billions of dollars doing. There are lots of reasons, you just don't like them.
The car release cycle is pretty much exactly what flagship phones do too. They get a major redesign every few years with incremental improvements in between.
The biggest reason is obvious: if you didn't your competitors would and they'd eat your lunch. Modern mobile devices are only 15 yrs old, they're where PCs were in 1995. I'm already seeing people who used to upgrade every two years switch to 3, and before you know it that will climb to 4, 5, etc. as the tech matures. In 1997 your PC was obsolete after two years, now they're fine a decade later, and phones will get there too.